THE    HOME    LIFE    OF    THE 
ANCIENT    GREEKS 


THE   HOME   LIFE 

OF  THE 

ANCIENT  GREEKS 


TRANSLATED  FROM  THE  GERMAN  OF 

PROF.   H.  BLUMNER 


BY 

ALICE    ZIMMERN 

(Girton  College,  Cambridge) 


NUMEROUS  ILLUSTRATIONS 


FUNK  &  WAGNALLS  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 


AIL  RTr.HTS  RESERVED 


CONTENTS 


LIST  OP  ILLUSTRATIONS          ^.        ...        ~» 

INTRODUCTION ^.        ...        .„         ...         ...         ...  jmi 

CHAPTBR  I.     COSTUME  ...        ...         ...         ...        ...        ...       1 

CHAPTBR  IE      BIRTH  AND  INFANCT  ..     78 

CHAPTER  HI     Em  CATION     ...         ...        ^.     99 

CHAPTER  IV.     MAIIRIAOB  AND  WOMEN      ...         ...        ...        ...  133 

CHAPTER  V.     DAILY  LIFE  WITHIN  AND  WITHOUT  THE  HOUSE...  176 

CHAPTER  VI.     MBALS  AND  SOCIAL  ENTERTAINMENTS      202 

CHAPTER  VII.     SICKNESS  A^ID  PHYSICIANS,  DKATH  AND  BUKIAL  233 

CHAPTER  VIII.     GYMNASTICS          265 

CHAPTER  IX.     Music  AND  DANCING ...  306 

CHAPTER  X.     RELIGIOUS  WORSHIP  . .         ...         ...         323 

CHAPTER  XL     PUBLIC  FESTIVAL*   ...         ...        349 

CHAPTER  XII.     THE  THEATRE         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  392 

CHAPTER  XIII.     WAR  AND  SEAFARING     ...        ...        _        ...  450 

CHAPTER  XIV.     AGRICULTURE,  TRADE,  AND  HANDICRAFT        ...  489 

CHAPTER  XV.    SLAVEBY       „.        __        ._        __.  619 

•  LIST  OF  AUTHORITIES 533 

K-DEX „ ,.  637 


WITHDRAWN 

2052044 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 


L    Ancient    Male    and    Female    Costumes.    Vase-palnHng    from    Elite 

ceramographiyue,  II.  27     ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..        6 

2.  Antique  Male  Chiton  with  Himation,  Vase-painting  from  Gerhard. 

Etruskische  und  campanische  Vasenbilder.  Plate  21  ..  ..  6 

8.  Antique  Costumes  (Dance)  from  the  Frangois  Vase.  From  the  Wiener 

archceologische  Vorlegebldtter.  Series  II.  Plates  3  and  14  ..  ..  8 

4.  Costumes  of  the  Fifth  Century  B.O.  (Rape  of  Helen.)  Vase-painting  by 

Hiero.  From  Gerhard.  Trinkschalen  und  Gefasze.  Plates  11  and  12. .  10 
6.  Short  Male  Chiton  with  Kolpos.  Vase-painting  from  Gerhard.  (See  2.) 

Plates  6  and  7 18 

6.  Warrior  in  Exomis.    Relief  on  a  Tombstone.    From  Bulletin  de  corre- 

spondence hellenique,  IV.    Plate  7..  ..  ..  ..  ..14 

7.  Statue  of  Sophocles  in  the  Lateran.    From  a  Photograph.        . .  . .      18 

8.  Citizen    in  Chiton    and    Himation.    Terra-cotta  from    Butt,   de  corr. 

Kell.,\ll.    Plate  12.          ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..      17 

».    Costume  of  Ephebos  (Adoration  of  a  Hermes).    Vase  painting  from 

Schreiber.    Kulturhistarischer  Atlas,  Altertum.    Plate  14,  3  ..      18 

10.  Dress  of  Attic  Ephebos  (Farewell  of  a  Young  Warrior).    Vase-painting 

from  Baumeister.    DenkmcUer  des  classichen  Altertums.    Fig.  421.    ..      19 

11.  Antique   Female   Costumes  from  the   Francois    Vase.    From   Wiener 

arch.  Vorlegebl 28 

12.  Antique  Female  Costume,  Vase-painting  by  Exekias.     From  Afon.  d'Inst. 

Archeol.,11.22.  ..  24 

18.    Antique  Female  Costume.    Vase-painting  from  Stephani.    Kampf  des 

Theseiu  and  Minotaurus.    Plate  L  ..  ..  ..  ..25 

14.  Antique  Female  Dress,  from  the  Frangois  Vase.    (See  3.)    Plate  V.      ..      26 

15.  Antique  Female  Costumes.    Vase-painting  from  El.  ceram.,  III.  36,  B.  . .      27 

16.  Ancient  Female  Costume  with  Kolpos.    Vase-painting  from  Gerhard. 

Auserlesene  Vasenbilder,  III.  727    ..  ..  ..  ..  ..29 

17.  Dress  of  the  Fifth  Century  B.C.    From  a  Vase-painting  by  Buphronios. 

From  the  Wiener  arch.  Vorlegebl.     Series  V.    Plate  7          ..  ..      81 

18.  Female  Costume  of  the  Fifth  Century  B.C.  (Msenads),  from  a  Vase  by 

Hiero.    Idem.    Plate  4 82 

19.  Female  Costume  of  the  Fifth  Century  B.C.,  from  a  Vase  by  Brygos. 

From  Man.  d'Inst.,  V.  14 84 

20.  Modes  of  arranging  Chiton.    V.-P.  from  Tischbein.  Vases  Hamilton,  L  7      85 

21.  Putting  on  the  Cliiton  and  arranging  the  Bib.    Bronze   Statue  from 

Herculaneum.    From  a  Photograph.          ..  ..  ..  ..88 

22.  Caryatid  from  the  Erechtheum.    From  Baumeister.    (See  10.)  Fig.  535  ..    87 

23.  High-girt  Chiton  with  Himation.    Statue  of  a  Daughter  of  Niobe  in 

the  Museo  CUiaramonti  in  the  Vatican.    From  a  Photograph  ..      88 

24.  Ungirt  Chiton  with  Himation.    V.-P.,  Gerhard.    (See  2.)  Plates  Band  7      40 

25.  Open  Chiton  with  Mantle.     Vase-painting  from    the    Wiener  arch. 

Vorlegebl.    Series  II.    Plate  6, 2    ..  „  „  ..  ..      4] 


Xli  LIST  OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

fAO» 

26.  Open  Chiton  with  Mantle.    Vase-painting  from  El.  ceram.,  III.  58        ..      42 

27.  Lady  in  Walking  Dress.    Terra-cotta  Figure  from  Stackelberg.     GrSber 

der  Hellenen.     Plate  67      ..            ..            ..            ..            ..  4Jand45 

J8.    Lady  in  Walking  Dress.    Idem          ..           ..           ..           ..  . .      46 

29.  Sandals.    Collected  from  Works  of  Art  (chiefly  Vase-paintings)  ..      49 

30.  Sandals  with  High  Straps.    Idem     ..           ..           ..           ..  ..50 

31.  Antique  Men's  Shoes.    Idem,..           ..           ..           ..           ..  ..      51 

82.    Men's  and  Women's  Shoes.    Idem     ..           ..           ..           ..  ..      52 

33.  High  Boots  (Endromides).    Idem        ..  ..  ..  ..  ..53 

34.  High  Boots  with  Overhanging  Lappets.    Idem  ».  ..  ..      54 
85.    Vai ious  Shapes  of  the  Petasos.    Idem              ..           ...           ..  ..66 

36.  The  Common  Forms  of  Petasos    Idem  ..  ..  ..  ..      57 

37.  Uncommon  Forms  of  Petasos.    Idem  ..  ..  ..  ..58 

38.  Youth  in  Travelling  Costume.     Vase-painting  from  Overbeck.      Gallerit 

heroischcr  Bildwerke.    Plate  2,  1  . .  . .  . .  . .      59 

89.    Exomis   and   Pilos.      Statuette    of    Odysseus.     From    Winckelmann. 

Monumenti  mediti,  No.  154  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..      60 

40.  Sailor's  Costume.    V.-P.  from  Welcker.    Alte  Denkmaler,  III.   Plate  39, 1      01 

41.  Lady  with   Petasos.     Terra-cotta  Figure    from    Kekule.     Terra-eotte* 

vonSicllien.    Plate  33       ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..68 

42.  Lady  with  Sunshade.    V.-P.  from  Gerhard.     Vases  grecs.   'Plate  8        ..      63 
43  and  44.    Antique  Modes  of  Dressing  the  Hair.    Vase-painting  and  Marble 

Head  from  Schreiber.     (See  9.)    Plate  85,  3  and  14  ..  ..66 

45  and  46.    Antique  Coiffures.    Marble  Heads  from  MUteilungen  det  Devtschen 

archaologischen  Institute  in  Athen,  VIII.  (1883.)  Plate  X.  12a  and  XI.  1  «7 

47.  Antique  Coiffure.    Marble  Head.    Idem.    Plate  XII.  4a  and  4b  ..        ..  68 

48.  Antique  Coiffure.    V.-P.  by  Euphronios.    Idem,    Plate  XI.  5              ..  69 

49.  Antique  Coiffure.    Bronze  Head  from  Pompeii.    From  a  Photograph  . .  70 

50.  Antique  Mode  of  Wearing  the  Beard.     Belief  from  Nuove  memarie  deU" 

Inst.  Archeol.    Plate  13 73 

51  and  52.    Female  Coiffure.     Terra-cotta   Heads  from  Kekule.    (.See  41.) 

Plates  161  and  22,  6  74 

53  and  54.    Female  Coiffure.    Idem.     Plates  16,  5  and  162  .  ..  ..      76 

55,  66,  57.    Female  Coiffure.    Idem.    Plates  17, 1 ;  18,  5  ;  and  19,  5          76  and  77 
68.    Relief  from  a  Tomb  representing  Child  in  Swaddling-clothes.    From 

Ann.  flnst    1830.    Add.  Plate,  Q  ..  ..  ..  ..79 

60.    Hermes  in  the  Cradle.    V.-P.  from  Arch.  Zeitg.  for  1844.    Plate  20       ..      81 
00.    Child's  Bed  on  Rollers.  V.-P.  from  Nuove  mem.  dett  Inst.  Arch.  Plate  15, 2      82 
6L    Mother  giving  her  Child  the  Breast.     Terra-cotta  Figure  from  Gerhard. 

GesammeUe  Abhandlungen.    Plate  80, 2       ..  ..  ..  ..      88 

01    Mother  and  Child.     Relief  from  a  Tomb  at  Athens.      From  a  Pho- 
tograph ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..86 

68.    Boy  with  small  Cart  and  Dog.  V.-P.  from  Stackelberg.  (See  27.)  Plate  17      87 
64.    Child's    Cart.      Vase-painting   from    Compte-rendu   de   la   commission 

archeologique  de  St.  Petersburg.     1871.     Plate  5,  4  . .  . .      88 

85.    Child  with  Cart  drawn  by  Dogs.  V.-P.  from  Baumeister.  (See  10.)  Fig.  766      89 

66.  Jointed  Doll.    Terra-cotta  Figure.    From  Antiqu.  du  Bosph.   Cimnur. 

Plate  74,  8  90 

67.  Boy  with  Hoop.    Vase-painting  from  El.  ceram.,  I.  18  ..  ..  91 

68.  Toy  Quiver.     From  Compte-rendu  de  St.  Petersb.  for  1873.  Plate  38         ..  92 

69.  Girl  flying  a  Kite.     Vase-painting  from  Arch.  Ztg.  for  1895,  p.  125        ..  93 

70.  Boy  with  Wheel.   V.-P.  from  Benndorf.   Griech.  u  Sivil.  Vasenbilder,  p.  82  94 

71.  Woman    with    Wheel.      Vase-painting   from    Gerhard.       Vases   greet. 

Plate  10  ..  .      96 


^IST  OF   ILLUSTRATIONS  xiii 

PAOB 

72  Child's  Swing.     V.-P.  from  Ann.  fflnst.    1857.     Add.  Plate,  L  ..  96 

13.  See-saw.    Vase-painting  from  Schreiber.    (See  9.)     Plate  79,  8  .  ..  96 

74.  See-saw  on  the  Foot.    V.-P.  from  Baumeister.    (See  10.)    Fig.  834       . .  97 

75.  Attic  School  Instruction.    Vase-painting  by  Duns.    From  Arch,.  Zla.  for 

1869.    Plate  1 105 

76.  Ephebi  racing  on  Horseback.    V.-P.  from  Schreiber.    (See  9.)   Plate  24,  9  125 

77.  Female  Racer  from  Elis.      Statue  in  the  Vatican.     From  a  Photograph  131 

78.  Reception   of   Bride   at   Bridegroom's    House.      Vase-painting   from 

Stackelberg.    (See  27.)    Plate  82    ..  ..       •     ..  ..  ..143 

79.  Women  at  the  Well.    Vase-painting  from  Gerhard.     (See  16.)    IV.  COS,  9    150 

80.  Woman  Spinning.    Vase-painting.     Idem,  IV.  302  and  3,  M  3  ..  ..     153 

81.  Woman  at  the  Loom  (Penelope).    V.-P.  from  Man.  d'Inst.,  IX.  42, 1    ..    154 

82.  Women  at  Bath  and  the  Toilet    Vase-painting  from  Stackelberg.     (See 

27.)    Plate  33       ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..155 

83.  Women  Washing.    Vase-painting  from  Gerhard.    (See  16.)    III.  218     ..    156 

84.  Folding-up  Clothes.    Vase-painting.    Idem,  IV.  301 157 

85.  Women's  Toilet  and  Bath.    V.-P.  from  Baumcister.     (See  10.)     Fig.  220    158 

86.  Washing  at  the  Well  and  Completion  of  Toilet     (Athene  and  Hera 

before  the  Judgment  of  Paris.)    V.-P.  from  Mon.  d' Inst.,  IV.  18       ..    160 

87.  Women's  Public  Bath.    Vase-painting  from  El.  dram.,  IV.  18  ..  ..    161 

88.  Toilet    Scene.      Vase-painting    from    Gazette    archeologique   for   1879. 

Plate  23 ..   Frontispiece 

89.  Lady  Arranging  her  Hair.     Terra-cotta  from  Tanagra.    Idem.     1878. 

Plate  10 163 

90.  Lady  (Bride ?)  at  her  Toilet   V.-P.  from  Benndorf.  (See  70.)  Plate  45,  1.  164 

91.  Scene  from  the  Life  of  Women.    V.-P.  from  Gerhard.    (See  4. )    Plate  14, 1  165 

92.  Toilet  Scenes.  From  Compte-rendu  de  St.  Petersburg.    1860.    Plate  1,  8  168 

93.  Diagram  of  a  Water-clock     ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  187 

94.  Bronze  Razors,  from  Helbig.   Das  homerische  Epos.    Fig.  49    ..  . .  188 

95.  Hair-dresser.     Terra-cotta  Group,   from  Tanagra.    From  Arch.   Ztg., 

XXXII.   Plate  14  189 

96.  Hen's  Public  Bath.    Vase-painting  from  Schreiber.    (See  9.)    Plate  21, 9    193 
97  and  98.    Drinking  Scenes.    V.-P.  from  Mon.  d'Inst.,  III.  12        ..     210  and  211 
99.    Female  Juggler.    Vase-painting  from  Mus.  Borbonico,  VIL  85..  ..     217 

100.  Female  Juggler,  from  Baumeister.    (See  10.)     Fig.  631  ..  ..218 

101.  Cottabas.    Vase-painting  from  M on.  cflnst.,  VII.  51,  2  ..  ..221 

102.  Playing  "  Board-games."    Terra-cotta  Group   from  Arch.  Ztg.,  XXI. 

Plate  178,  1  224 

103.  Girl    Playing   Astragals.      Terra-cotta    Figure    from    Tanagra;    from 

Baumeister.    (See  10.)    Fig.  156 226 

104.  Morra  Players.    Vase-painting  from  Arch.  Ztg.,  XXIX.     Plate  56,  1     ..  227 

105.  Cock-fighting.    Vase-painting  from  Baumeister.    (See  10.)     Fig.  695    ..  228 

106.  Consequences  of  Intemperance.      Vase-painting  from  Arch,.   Vorlegebl. 

Series  VIII.    Plate  5         229 

107     Scene  at  a  Nocturnal  Comus  (Hercules  and  Satyrs).    Vase-painting 

from  Benndorf.    (See  70.)    Plate  95  ..  ..  ..  ...231 

108.  Funeral  Lament    Vase-painting  from  Mon.  d'Inst.,  IIL  60    ..  ..247 

109.  Funeral  Lament    V.-P.  from  Ann.  d'Inst.    1869.    Plate  299,  O.P.       ..    248 

110.  BuriaL    Vase-painting  from  Mon.  d'Inst.,  VIII.  4,  Ib  ..  ..252 

111.  Corpse  In  the  Tomb.    V.-P.  from  Stackelberg.     (See  27.)    Plate  38      ..    253 

112.  Extinguishing  the  Funeral  Pile.    V.-P.  from  Mon.  rf/ast..  IV.  41         ..256 
113  and  114.    Athenian  Reliefs  on  Tombs.    From  Arch.  Ztg.,  XXIX.    Plates 

43and44  257  and  259 

116.    Care  of  a  Grave.    Vase-painting  from  Stackelberg.  (See  27.)  Plate  44    ..    200 


11V  LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAO« 

116.  Care  of  a  Grave.    Vase-painting  from  Benmlorf.   (See  70.)    Plate  36     ..  2fil 

117.  Relief  from  an  Athenian  Tomb.    From  a  Photograph ..  ..  ..  2t>3 

118.  Gymnastic  Exercises.    V.-P.  from  Baumeister.    (See  10.)    Pig.  611      ..  -2(57 

119.  Exercise  with  Dumb-bells.     Engraving  from  a  Bronze  Discus.    From 

Ann.  d'Inst.    Plate  B        ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..    268 

120.  Racers.    Vase-painting  from  Mon.  d'Inst.,  X.  48m      ..  ..  ..272 

121.  Runners  and  Jumpers,     Vase-painting  from  Gerhard.    (See  16.)   IV.  259    273 

122.  Armour  Race.    Vase-painting  from  Mon.  d'Inst.,  X.  48e,  3      ..  ..274 

123.  Standing  Discobolus  of  the  Vatican.  Marble  Statue.   From  a  Photograph    276 

124.  Throwing  Discobolus  (after  Myron)  in  the  Vatican.    Marble  Statue. 

From  a  Photograph  . .  . .  . .  . .  . .  . .    279 

125.  Discobolus   after  the   Throw.    Bronze   Statue   at  Naples.      From   a 

Photograph  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..    280 

126.  Spear-thrower.     Engraving.     Reverse  of  Fig.  119        . .  . .  . .     282 

127.  Running,    Jumping,     Spear  •  throwing,    Boxing.       Vase-painting    by 

Pamphalos.    From  Mon.  d'Inst.,  XI.  24 283 

128.  Wrestlers.      Marble   Group   in   the    Ufflzzi    at    Florence.       Froro   a 

Photograph  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  287 

129.  Wrestlers.    Vase-painting  from  Mon.  <f  Inst.,  II.  24    ..  ..  ..  288 

130.  Wrestlers.    Vase-painting.    Idem,  X.  48e,  1 289 

181.     Wrestlers.    Vase  painting  from  Gerhard.   (See  p.  4.)    Plate  20..  ..  291 

132.  Boxers.    Vase-painting  from  M on.  fflnst.    48e,  2        ..  ..  ..294 

133.  Boxers.    Vase-painting  from  Benndorf.    (See  70.)    Plate  31,  2a  . .    295 

134.  Gymnastic  Exercise  with  a  Sphere.    Bas-relief  from  Schreiber.    (See 

9.)    Plate  23,  2 300 

135.  Archery.    Vase-painting  from  Schreiber.    (See  9.)    Plate  80,  7  ..  301 

136.  Women  playing  Musical  Instruments.    V.-P.  from  El.  dram.,  11.86      ..  310 

137.  Woman  playing  the  Trigonon.      Vase-painting  from  Mon.  d'Inst.,  V.  37  313 
138  and  139.    Flute  player.  Bronze  Statuette  from  Dodona.  From  Carapanos. 

Dodone  et  ses  ruines.    Plate  10        . .  . .  . .  . .    314  and  ?15 

140.  Flute-player.    Vase-painting  from  Mon.  d'Inst.,  X.  10  ..  ..317 

141.  Performance  of  a  Flute-player.    Vase-painting  by  Euphronios.    From 

Wiener  arch.  TorlegeU.    Series  V.  4  ..  ..         '..  ..318 

142.  Female  Flute-player  and  Dancer  with  Castanets.      Vase-painblng  by 

Hiero.    Idem.    Series  C.  5  . .  . .  . .  . .  . .    319 

143.  Lustral  Sacrifice.    Vase-painting  from  Heydemann.    Griechische  Vasen- 

Wilder.    Plate  11,  3  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..331 

144.  Presentation  of  Sacrificial  Offerings.    Vase-painting  from  Man.  fflnst., 

VI.  and  VII.    Plate  37 312 

145  and  146.    Presentation    of    Sacrificial    Offerings.      Vase-paintings   from 

Benndorf.     (See  70.)    Plate  45,  2        . .  . .  . .         . .     333  and  334 

147.  Sacrificial  Scene.    Vase-painting  from  Mon.  d'Inst.,  IX.  53       ..  ..339 

148.  Leaden  Tablet  with  Question  addressed  to  the  Oracle  of  Delphi.     From 
Carapanos.    (See  138.)    Plate  36,  2    ..  ..  ..  ..  ..345 

149.  Putting  Horses  to  a  Chariot.    Vase-painting  from  Gerhard.    (See  16.) 

IV.  249  and  250     ..  . .  . .  . .  . .  . .  . .     355 

150.  Plan  and  Section  of  the  great  Theatre  of  Dionysus  at  Athens.    From 

theZeitschriftfiirBildende  Kunst  for  1878,  p.  193     ..  ..  ..303 

151.  Theatre  of  Syracuse  in  its  present  Condition.     From  a  Photograph      ..    3<J5 

152.  Theatre     of    Syracuse :    Ground  plan.       From     Strack.      Griechisches 

Theater.    Plate  V.  1  . .        . .  . .  . .  . .  . .     396 

153.  Theatre  of  Segesta,  Reconstructed.    Idem.     Plate  I.  . .  . .  . .    397 

154  and  155.    Tragic   Mask.    Terra-cotta   from   Vulci.     From   Ann.  d'Intt. 

1881.    -Plate  E ..  ..427 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS  XV 

PAOB 

H6  and  157.     Comic  Masks.     Idem.     Plato  J            ..             ..            ..  „  431 

158.  Comic  Actor.     Terra-cotta  from  Arch.  Ztg.  for  1854      Plate  69,  3  «  432 

159.  Comic  Actor.    Terra-cotta  from  Kekule.    (.See  41.)  Plate  51,  5  ..  433 

160.  Masks    from   the   Andromeda-myth.      Pompeian  Wall-painting  from 

Arch.  Ztg.  for  1878.     Plate  3  . .  . .  . .  . .  . .     MS 

161  and  162.     Tragic  Actor.     Ivory  Statuette  from  A/on.  (CInst.,  XI    18          ..     *37 

163.  Scene    from    Comedy     (The     Sick     Chiron  7).      Vaso-painting     from 

El.  ceram.,  II.  94  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..     439 

164.  Scene  from  Comedy.     (Adventure  of  Hercules.)    Vase-painting  from 

Arch.  Vorlegebl.     Series  B.     Plate  32,  a      . .  . .  . .  . .     441 

165.  Scene  from  Comedy.    (Soldier  and  Parasite.)    Pompeian  Wall-painting 

from  Mus.  Borbon.,  IV.  18  448 

166.  Military  Chariot    Vase-painting  from  Compte-rendu  for  1874.    Plate  5..     45J 
167  and  168.     Warriors  putting  on  their  Armour.    From  Gerhard.    (See  16.) 

IV.  269    ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..     458an<t459 

169.  Murder  of  Dolon.    Vase-painting  from  Gerhard.     (See  4.)    Plate  C  1     ..     460 

170.  Achilles  binds    up  the    Wounds  of  Patroclus.       Vase  painting  from 

Mon.  d'lnst.,  I.  25  ..             ..            ..            ..           ...             ..461 

171.  Farewell  of  Amphiaraua.  Idem,,  III.  54          ..            ..            ..            ..463 

172.  Equipment  of  a  Warrior.  Vase-painting  by  Duris.    Idem,  VIII.  41      ..     464 

173.  174,    and    175.     Ancient  Greek    Helmets.      From    Helbig.      (See  94.) 

Figs.  70—72  . .  . .  . .  . .  . .  . .  . .     406 

176      Warriors  playing  Draughts.     Vase-painting  from  Mon.  d'lnst.,  II.  22  ..     467 

177.  Death  of  Menmon.    Vase-painting  from  Gerhard.     (See  4.)    Plate  D    ..     469 

178,  170,  180,  181.    Spear-heads  from  Dodona.      From  Carapanos.     (See  138.) 
Plates,  57,  8  ;  58,  1  ;  3  and  5    . .  . .  . .  . .  . .    471  and  472 

182,  183,  184.    Swords  from  Mycenae.     From  Helbig-.    (See  94.)     Figs.  90. 

86  and  87  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..473 

185  and  186.     Swords  from  Italian  Lake-dwellings.    Idem.     Figs.  88  and  89  .     474 
187.     Head  of  an  Arrow  from  Megalopolis  ..  ..  ..  ..477 

188  and  189.  Greek  Spu^s  from  Dodona.  From  Carapanos.  (See  138 ) 

Plate52,  1  and  2 479 

190  3ailing  Vessel.  Vase-painting  from  Schreiber.  (See  9.)  Plate  45,  11..  481 
191.  Ship  of  Odysseus.  Vase-painting  from  Mon.  <f  Inst.,  I.  8  ..  ..482 

192  and  193.  Antique  Ships  with  Spurs  at  the  Prow.  Vase-painting  from 

Helbig     (See  94.)     Figs.  3  and  4 V  483 

194.  Ship  witli  two  Rows  of  Oars.    V. -P.  from  Schreiber.    (See  9)    Plate  45, 12    484 

195.  Attic  Trireme.    Belief  from  Ann.  d'lnst.     1861.    Plate  M,  2     ..  ..485 
11*6.     Men  Ploughing.     Vase-painting  from  Berichte  der  Sachsischen  Gesellschaft 

der  Wlssenschaft,  for  1867.     Plate  I.  1  ..  ..  ..  ..494 

197.  Olive  Harvest.     Idem.     Plate  III.  2  ..  ..  ..  ..     495 

198.  Artisan  in  Exomis.    Terra-cotta  from  Bull,  de  corr.  hell.,  VII.    Plate  12    502 

199.  Shoemaker.     Vase-painting.     (See  196.)    Piate  III.  5..  ..  ..503 

200.  Shoemaker's  Workshop.      Vase-painting  frmn  Mon.  d'lnst.,  XI.  28,  1  ..     505 

201.  Smithy.     Idem.     Plate  28,  2     . .  . .         . .  . .  . .  . .     507 

202.  Brass  Foundry.     Vase-painting.     (See  196.)    Plate  V.  4  ..  . .     508 

203.  Vase  Factory.     From  Ann.  d'lnst.     1876.     Plates  D,  E  ..  ..     50S 

204.  Cook(?).    Terra-cotta  from  Tanagra.  From  Arch.  Ztg.  for  1874.   Plate  14    511 

205.  Trade  in  silphium.     Vase-painting  from  Mon.  dlnst.,  I.  «       ..  ..     615 

206.  Slave.     Terra-cotta  from  Bull,  de  cor.  hellen.  ..  ,.     525 


INTRODUCTION 


IF  the  account  of  Greek  life  and  customs  given  in  this 
work  does  not  present  all  sides  of  life  in  due  pro- 
portion, we  must  lay  the  blame  on  the  insufficiency  ot 
the  sources  whence  a  description  of  this  kind  is 
derived.  These  are  of  three  kinds :  literary,  artistic, 
and  epigraphic.  The  literary  sources  supply  us  with 
a  large  amount  of  detail  for  the  work  in  hand,  but 
seldom  give  complete  pictures  or  descriptions  of 
social  conditions.  Those  writers  of  the  Free  Age  of 
Greece  whom  we  still  possess  entirely,  or  in  consider- 
able fragments,  are  not  all  equally  in  a  position  to 
touch  on  matters  of  private  or  domestic  life.  The 
Homeric  Epics  give  a  good  deal  of  insight  into  the 
life  of  those  early  times ;  but  after  Homer  epic  poetry 
disappears  from  the  ranks  of  available  testimony,  and 
what  remains  to  us  of  the  Alexandrine  Epic,  which 
was  essentially  a  learned  style  of  poetry,  supplies  no 
useful  material,  if 'only  because  it  seeks  its  subjects  in 
the  mythological  period,  and  describes  them  on  essenti- 
ally Homeric  lines.  The  lyric  poets,  too,  afford  little 
help  ;  now  and  then  they  enable  us  to  add  a  few 
details  to  our  picture,  but,  as  a  rule,  the  results  are 
small,  and  not  till  we  reach  the  Alexandrine  period, 
and  there  chiefly  in  bucolic  and  epigrammatic  poetry, 
do  we  obtain  richer  results  in  this  domain.  Here  the 


XV111  INTRODUCTION 

poems  of  Theocritus  are  of  especial  value.  Unfortu- 
nately, very  much  of  this  period,  which  would  have 
thrown  most  interesting  lights  on  different  aspects  of 
Greek  life,  has  been  entirely  lost,  or  survives  only  in 
small  fragments.  Tragedy  again,  which  usually  takes 
its  subjects  from  mythology,  eannot  be  considered  at 
all  Ancient  poetry  possesses  no  "  middle-class  epic  " 
like  modern  poetry,  which  will  assuredly  some  day 
supply  valuable  material  for  the  social  historian.  But 
ancient  comedy  is  of  the  greatest  value  for  our  pur- 
pose, and  may  indubitably  be  regarded  as  the  most 
fertile  source  of  our  knowledge  of  private  life.  The 
comedies  of  Aristophanes  deal  with  the  immediate 
present,  and,  although  full  of  extravagant  notions  and 
fantastic  inventions,  yet  treat  of  actual  circumstances, 
and  thus  supply  a  mine  of  wealth  for  the  student  of 
Attic  life.  We  can  only  judge,  from  numerous  frag- 
ments of  their  comedies,  how  valuable  would  have 
been  the  other  poets  of  the  so-called  "Older  Comedy" 
of  the  fifth  century  B.C.,  who  are,  unfortunately,  lost 
to  us.  Even  though  we  must  exercise  some  caution 
in  the  use  of  these  authorities,  distinguishing  comic 
inventions  and  poetical  exaggeration  from  actual  fact, 
yet  in  the  majority  of  cases  it  will  not  be  very  difficult 
to  come  to  a  decision  on  such  questions.  No  less 
valuable,  perhaps  even  more  useful,  for  our  purpose 
would  be  the  so-called  "New  Comedy"  of  Menander 
and  others,  if  we  possessed  more  than  a  few  scattered 
fragments  of  it.  The  imitations  of  Plautus  and 
Terence  compensate  to  some  extent  for  the  lost 
originals,  yet  even  here  we  must  be  on  our  guard, 
since  the  Roman  poets  in  then*  adaptation  often 
introduced  traits  from  Roman  life.  Still,  as  a  rule 
they  adhered  to  Greek,  or,  rather,  Attic  manners, 
upon  which  the  original  comedies  were  based. 


INTRODUCTION  XIX 

Among  prose  writers  we  must  chiefly  consider 
the  historians  and  orators.  The  former  are  of 
comparatively  little  use.  They  deal  with  great 
political  and  military  events ;  the  daily  life  going  on 
around  them  gave  them  no  subjects  for  description ; 
apart  from  the  fact  that  it  probably  never  occurred  to 
them  that  anyone  in  later  ages  would  ever  care  to 
hear  about  the  social  conditions  of  that  time.  A  writer 
like  Herodotus,  who  introduces  not  only  political 
history,  but  also  geographical,  ethnological,  and  social 
information,  directs  his  attention  for  this  very  reason 
chiefly  to  foreign  nations,  and  gives  his  countrymen 
a  great  deal  of  information  about  the  life  and  customs 
of  the  Egyptians,  Assyrians,  and  Persians;  concern- 
ing the  Greeks  themselves  he  is  absolutely  silent 
It  is  quite  natural  that  historians  should  only 
mention  by  the  way  facts  which  we  could  use  with 
advantage  in  a  description  of  Greek  life.  The  orators, 
on  the  other  hand,  supply  richer  material,  not  so 
much  in  political  speeches  as  in  private  orations 
dealing  with  law-suits,  of  which  a  considerable  number 
have  come  down  to  us.  Here  side-lights  fall  on  many 
events  of  daily  life,  and  we  obtain  an  insight  into 
private  affairs  such  as  we  seldom  gain  elsewhere. 
Philosophical  writings  supply  some  material,  though 
comparatively  little ;  especially  those  that  take  actual  life 
as  their  basis  and  deal  with  philosophical  problems  in 
connection  with  existing  circumstances.  Among  these 
may  be  included  such  writings  as  the  "Characters" 
of  Theophrastus,  and  here  we  can  but  regret  that  we 
possess  only  mutilated  fragments  of  these  admirable 
descriptions  of  character,  based  on  much  accurate 
observation,  and  taken  direct  from  real  life. 

The  Greek  literature  of  the  Koman  period  can  only 
be  utilised  in  selections  and  with  care,  to  illustrate 


XX  INTRODUCTION 

the  period  with  which  we  have  to  deal  After 
Greece  came  under  Roman  dominion,  new  manners 
and  customs  took  root  there,  unknown  during  the 
period  of  Greek  freedom  and  the  Hellenistic  epoch. 
This  diminishes  the.  value  for  our  purpose  of  the 
writings  of  Plutarch,  and  even  more  of  Lucian,  that 
excellent  delineator  of  the  customs  of  the  second  cen- 
tury A.D.  But  even  in  this  later  literature  there  is 
a  good  deal  which  we  have  a  right  to  use  in  our 
description,  for  some  of  its  habits  and  customs 
obtained  through  the  whole  of  antiquity;  besides 
which,  the  later  writers  often  turned  to  past  centuries 
for  descriptions,  and  sought  their  material  in  older 
sources  or  old  historians  and  other  authors,  on  whose 
accuracy  we  cannot,  however,  always  depend.  The 
same  was  the  case  with  the  materials  which  we  are 
able  to  use  in  Roman  literature. 

From  all  this  it  is  plain  that  the  account  given 
here  deals  especially  with  the  real  "  classic  "  period  of 
Greek  antiquity  from  about  the  sixth  to  the  third 
century  B.C.  It  is  impossible  to  give  a  connected 
history  of  the  development  of  Greek  civilisation  from 
the  beginning,  if  only  on  account  of  the  nature  of 
our  authorities  and  the  incompleteness  of  tradition. 
Between  Homeric  culture  and  that  which  we  meet 
with  afterwards  in  the  poets  and  prose  writers  of  the 
best  time,  lies  a  period  of  several  centuries,  about 
which  we  know  very  little,  and  that  little  chiefly 
in  a  legendary  form.  We  can  only  determine 
in  a  few  cases  how  the  conditions  of  the  sixth 
and  fifth  centuries  gradually  developed,  for  instance 
in  the  rise  of  the  constitution,  while  it  is  impossible 
for  us  to  trace  the  genesis  of  manners  and  civilisation. 
We  shall,  therefore,  not  attempt  to  give  a  separate 
account  of  Homeric  civilisation,  but  content  ourselves 


INTRODUCTION  XXI 

with  introducing  a  few  of  its  details  in  appropriate 
places ;  nor  shall  we  go  beyond  the  period  of 
Hellenism,  since  even  here  foreign,  and  especially 
Oriental,  influence  produced  many  alterations,  while 
Roman  influence  afterwards  made  many  essential 
changes. 

The  artistic  authorities  are  also  chosen  in  accord- 
ance with  this  scheme.  The  vase  paintings,  of  which 
so  many  have  been  preserved  to  us,  supply  a  great 
quantity  and  variety  of  pictures  of  Greek  life,  and  we 
have  drawn  largely  on  this  valuable  source  of  inform- 
ation, which  supplies  most  of  the  pictures  chosen  as 
illustrations.  Compared  with  this  there  is  little  else 
of  importance.  The  statues  to  which  we  have  access 
are  chiefly  figures  of  gods  and  heroes,  or  portraits. 
These  we  can  only  use  to  illustrate  Greek  costume. 
But  a  few  genre  pictures  are  preserved  to  us  in  the 
artistic  productions  of  the  best  Greek  period,  and  some 
of  these  we  shall  have  occasion  to  discuss.  For  this 
purpose  the  small  terra-cotta  figures  are  more  useful, 
which  often  represent  with  vigorous  truth  subjects 
from  real  life.  Here,  too,  as  in  the  case  of  the  statues, 
we  must  always  remember  the  difference  between 
Hellenic  and  Roman  work,  and  it  is  just  this  consider- 
ation which  greatly  limits  our  choice  of  sculptures  ; 
for  the  great  majority  of  those  which  would  be  suit- 
able for  our  purpose  date  from  the  Roman  period,  and 
usually  represent  Roman  life.  For  this  reason  mosaics 
and  frescoes  can  scarcely  be  regarded,  since  none 
have  come  down  to  us  from  the  Greek  period.  Un- 
doubtedly many  of  them  imitate  Greek  models,  or, 
at  any  rate,  those  of  the  Alexandrine  epoch,  but  it  is 
not  always  easy  to  decide  in  particular  cases ;  and, 
moreover,  the  greater  part  are  mythological  pictures. 
It  is  obvious  that  works  of  Etruscan  art,  such  as 


XXII  INTRODUCTION 

sarcophagi,  pictures  on  mirrors,  and  the  lilu,,  cannot  be 
regarded.  Thus  the  works  of  art  suitable  for  supple- 
menting our  literary  sources  are  limited  in  number. 
Of  these  the  vase  paintings  constitute  the  great 
majority,  and  this  is  entirely  in  accordance  with  the 
chronological  limits  which  we  have  set  to  our  descrip- 
tion; for  they  almost  all  belong  to  the  centuries 
mentioned  above,  and  only  a  few  that  would  be  suit- 
able for  our  purpose  are  of  greater  antiquity. 

The  nature  of  our  authorities  not  only  sets  a  limit 
of  time,  but  also  one  of  space.  When  we  speak  of  Greek 
life  we  ought  to  include  in  it  not  only  life  in  actual 
Greece  or  Hellas,  but  also  that  in  the  numerous 
colonies  on  the  Aegean  and  Black  Seas,  in  Southern 
Italy,  Northern  Africa,  etc.  But  we  know  very  little 
of  the  conditions  in  those  Greek  settlements  outside 
Greece,  and  even  in  Greece  itself,  where,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  political  and  racial  differences,  these 
circumstances  are  by  no  means  everywhere  identical, 
pur  knowledge  is  limited  in  many  ways.  Even  though 
the  difference  in  manners  and  customs  was  greater  in 
early  times  than  afterwards,  when  increase  in  trade 
and  greater  facility  of  travel  produced  more  equal 
conditions,  yet  certain  local  and  national  peculiarities 
always  prevailed.  Life  at  Sparta  differed  in  many 
respects  from  that  at  Athens.  The  other  large  towns 
of  Greece — Corinth,  Sicyon,  Thebes,  not  to  speak  of 
the  colonies  of  Miletus,  Syracuse,  and  Gyrene — doubt- 
less showed  many  local  peculiarities  which  are  entirely 
hidden  from  our  knowledge.  Our  literary  sources  are 
for  the  greater  part  Athenian.  The  majority  of  our 
monuments,  too,  are  of  Attic  origin,  or,  at  any  rate, 
influenced  by  it,  though  Southern  Italy  supplies  some 
of  the  vases,  and  in  many  cases  the  customs  of  Magna 
Graeoia  are  represented  in  these  pictures.  Most  of  our 


DTTBODTJCTION 

knowledge  of  Greek  life,  then,  refers  to  Athens,  and  to 
be  quite  accurate  we  ought  to  call  our  description 
"  Life  in  Ancient  Athens."  Every  now  and  then  we 
are  enabled  to  enlarge  our  pictures  by  details  from 
other  parts  of  Greece.  Still,  we  must  beg  our  readers 
to  remember  that  most  of  the  traits  here  introduced 
relate  to  Athens  between  the  sixth  and  fourth 
centuries  B.C.  We  have  scarcely  the  remotest  con- 
ception of  the  mode  of  life  at  that  time  in  any  small 
Greek  city  or  in  the  country. 

Here  the  third  class  of  our  sources  comes  in  to 
help  us,  viz.,  the  inscriptions.  These  not  only  give  us 
most  of  our  material  for  a  knowledge  of  political  con- 
ditions, legal  and  religious  antiquities,  etc.,  but  they 
also  supply  interesting  details  of  private  life ;  and  as 
they  are  found  not  only  in  Attica,  but  all  over  Greece, 
the  islands,  and  the  colonies,  they  supply  much  very 
valuable  information  about  matters  which  our  literary 
sources  entirely  ignore.  As  in  most  cases  the  period 
of  the  inscription  can  be  ascertained  by  the  character 
of  the  writing  or  by  other  peculiarities,  we  are  not  so 
liable  here  to  make  chronological  mistakes  and  refer 
customs  of  a  later  period  to  earlier  times.  Compared 
with  our  literary  sources,  the  inscriptions  are  also  far 
safer  material ;  for  the  accuracy  of  a  writer  may 
be  sometimes  called  in  question,  especially  when  the 
information  is  supplied  at  second-hand 


GREEK  LIFE  AT  HOME 


CHAPTER    I. 

COSTUME. 

Dresses,  Stitched  and  Draped—  The  Chiton— The  Himation  or 
CI'Liina— Drapery— The  Uniform  Male  Dresses  of  Sparta— The 
Chlamys—  Similarity  Between  Male  and  Female  Dress— The 
Difference  Between  Doric  and  Ionic  Garments — The  Fashion  at 
Athens  in  the  Fifth  Century  B.C. — The  Materials — Footgear — 
Leggings— Head-Coverings — Mode  of  Pressing  the  Hair. 

To  obtain  a  complete  insight  into  the  life  of  former 
ages  we  require  primarily  a  knowledge  of  the  historical 
and  geographical,  political,  and  religious  conditions 
of  the  people  in  question,  as  well  as  of  its  intellectual 
development  in  art  and  science.  These,  however,  it  is 
not  our  purpose  to  consider  here.  The  second  requi- 
site for  a  vivid  picture  is  a  clear  notion  of  the  sur- 
roundings in  which  the  people  of  that  time  lived : 
their  dwellings,  furniture,  utensils,  etc.  And  lastly, 
there  is  another  point,  the  knowledge  of  which  is  no 
less  indispensable  in  order  to  obtain  a  clear  image 
of  the  past,  and  that  is  the  costume.  Our  know- 
ledge of  the  customs  and  habits  of  daily  life  appears 
far  more  real,  and  stands  out  more  vividly,  if  we 
can  also  form  in  our  minds  a  picture  of  the  people  of 
that  time.  Thus  no  one  can  expect  to  form  a  clear 
picture  of  mediaeval  life  without  at  least  a  general 

B 


2  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

notion  of  the  costume  of  that  period.  This  is  equally 
true  of  every  epoch  of  civilisation,  even  of  a  period 
so  little  distant  from  us  in  time  as  the  eighteenth 
century. 

We  therefore  preface  our  description  of  Greek  life 
with  an  account  of  the  details  of  Greek  costume,  and 
of  its  historical  development;  and  our  reasons  for 
going  into  greater  detail  here  than  in  other  domains 
is  that  there  are  so  many  wrong,  or  at  any  rate  in- 
complete, notions  extant  concerning  it.  For  when  we 
speak  to-day  of  Greek  costume  we  may  generally 
assume  that  the  majority  of  people,  if  female  dress  is 
in  question,  think  of  the  drapery  of  the  magnificent 
female  figures  in  the  Parthenon  marbles  ;  while,  as  re- 
gards male  costume,  their  minds  will  at  once  recur  to 
the  classic  figure  of  Sophocles  in  the  Lateran  or  of  the 
Aeschines  of  Naples,  and  form  their  notion  of  Greek 
male  costume  accordingly.  It  is,  however,  absolutely 
wrong  to  regard  these  as  typical  of  Greek  dress. 
They  represent  neither  the  costume  of  all  Hellas  nor 
that  of  the  whole  Greek  age.  That  "  noble  simplicity 
and  quiet  greatness,"  which  is  as  conspicuous  in  the 
dress  of  the  age  of  Pericles  as  in  its  art,  is,  like  the 
latter,  the  product  of  slow  development  through 
various  phases,  concerning  which,  with  the  exception 
of  a  few  literary  allusions,  the  monuments  give  us  all 
the  information  we  possess. 

Generally  speaking,  we  may  distinguish,  both  in 
male  and  female  Greek  dress,  two  kinds  of  garments 
— those  which  are  cut  in  a  certain  shape  and  partly 
stitched,  and  mantles  of  various  shapes  which  are 
draped  on  the  figure  and  only  acquire  their  form 
by  means  of  this  draping.  This  distinction  holds 
good  wirtj  few  exceptions  throughout  the  whole 


COSTUME.  3 

history  of. Greek  dress;  and,  generally  speaking,  it 
is  the  under  garments  which  are  stitched,  while  the 
upper  garments  are  draped.  Yet  we  must  observe 
that,  while  male  clothing  is,  as  a  rule,  confined  to  two 
garments,  we  very  often  find  in  female  costume 
a  third,  or  even  a  fourth,  belonging  sometimes  to 
the  first  and  sometimes  to  the  second  of  the  above- 
mentioned  classes. 

The  names  which  were  used  throughout  almost 
the  whole  of  Greek  antiquity  for  the  two  chief  articles 
of  dress  are,  for  the  under  garment,  chiton;  for  the 
upper  garment,  himation.  These  terms  are  used  for 
both  male  and  female  garments,  but  several  other 
designations  are  used,  and  the  word  himation  is 
not  found  in  the  Homeric  period,  but  the  cloak  which 
is  worn  over  the  chiton  is  called  chlaina, 

We  may  treat  first  of  male  costume.  As  re- 
gards the  chiton  of  the  oldest  period,  we  infer, 
from  allusions  in  epic  poetry,  with  which  the  oldest 
monuments  agree  (for  the  discoveries  at  Mycenae 
give  us  no  distinct  notion  of  pre-Homeric  costume), 
that  both  the  short  and  the  long  kinds  were  hi  use. 
The  short  chiton  seems  to  be  the  usual  dress  of  daily 
life ;  it  was  especially  worn  when  free  movement  was  re- 
quired, and  was  therefore  the  suitable  garment  for  war 
or  hunting,  for  gymnastic  exercises  or  manual  labour. 
The  long  chiton,  which  was  afterwards  regarded  as  espe- 
cially Ionic,  and  certainly  maintained  itself  longer  in 
Ionia  and  in  Attica  than  in  the  rest  of  Greece,  was 
not,  however,  unknown  to  the  Doric  races.  It  was  the 
usual  dress  for  men  of  advanced  age  and  good  position  ; 
it  was  also  worn  by  young  people  on  festive  occa- 
sions. We  therefore  find  on  the  monuments  of  the 
oldest  style  that  not  only  the  older  gods  wear  a  long 
chiton,  but  also  that  young  men  are  clothed  in  it  on 


4  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

festive  occasions,  or  if  they  are  in  any  way  connected 
with  religious  functions,  as,  for  instance,  priests,  harp- 
players,  flute-players,  charioteers,  etc.  This  use  of 
the  long  chiton  continues  to  the  classic  period.  Thus, 
for  instance,  we  see  the  figure  known  as  the  Archon 
Basileus  in  the  central  group  of  the  Eastern  Par- 
thenon frieze  in  this  dress  ;  and  tragic  actors,  if  they 
represented  men  of  good  position  and  in  peaceful 
circumstances,  also  continued  to  wear  the  long  chiton. 
Epic  poetry  itself  gives  us  no  direct  information 
about  the  shape  of  the  chiton  in  the  Homeric 
period.  Helbig  maintains,  basing  his  assertions  on 
some  casual  indications,  and  chiefly  on  the  oldest 
monuments,  that  it  differed  from  the  dress  of  the 
classic  period  in  being  close-fitting  and  free  from 
folds.  It  is  true  that  the  old  vase  paintings  show  us 
the  short  chiton  fitting  closely  round  the  body  and 
drawn  quite  firmly  round  the  legs.  It  is  girt  fast 
round  the  hips,  and  as  a  rule  does  not  go  below  the 
knee.  However,  it  is  not  safe  to  draw  conclusions  of 
this  kind  from  ancient  pictures,  for  much  which 
might  be  regarded  as  characteristic  of  ancient  costume 
may  be  due  only  to  the  incompleteness  of  art,  which 
was  not  yet  capable  of  representing  full  garments 
with  folds.  Thus,  in  ancient  works  of  art,  the  long 
chiton  also  appears  quite  narrow  in  the  upper  part, 
but  then  falls  perpendicularly  from  the  waist,  some- 
times gradually,  but  more  often  straight  without  any 
folds  to  the  feet.  (Compare  the  figure  of  Apollo  in 
Fig.  1  and  of  Priam  in  Fig.  2.)  Both  the  long  and 
short  chitons  as  a  rule  have  no  sleeves,  but  only  an 
armhole ;  we  sometimes  find  short  sleeves  not  quite 
covering  the  upper  arm.  Unfortunately,  we  cannot 
form  a  clear  notion  from  the  pictures  of  the  mode  in 
which  it  was  put  on.  It  is,  however,  probable  that  the 


6  GREEK  LIFE   AT  HOME. 

short  chiton  was  sewn  together  all  round  and  thrown 
over  the  head,  where  there  may  have  been  an  addi- 
tional slit  connected  with  this  opening,  and  fastened 
with  a  pin.  There  are,  however,  no  traces  of 
this  on  the  monuments,  nor  are  fibulae  or  brooches 

mentioned  in  the 
Homeric  descrip- 
tions hi  connec- 
tion with  themale 
chiton.  Probably 
the  long  chiton 
was  cut  in  the 
manner  of  a 
chemise.  Helbig's 
hypothesis  that 
there  was  a  slit 
down  the  middle 
of  the  front  is  just 
as  uncertain  as 
his  similar  as- 
sumption with  re- 
gard to  Homeric 
female  dress. 

Besides  the 
chiton,  the  older 
FIG.  2.  male  costume  also 

had  a  sort  of  loin- 
cloth or  apron.  It  is  not  at  all  improbable  that  at 
one  period  the  Greeks  wore  merely  the  apron  and 
cloak,  and  no  chiton.  When  the  latter  became 
universally  fashionable  (which,  according  to  recent 
surmises,  was  due  to  Semitic  influence)  the  cloth  dis- 
appeared, or  continued  only  as  part  of  military  dress. 
The  himation,  or  chlaina,  appears  on  ancient  monu- 
ments stiff  and  free  from  folds,  like  the  chiton.  This  is 


COSTUME.  7 

a  garment  resembling  a  mantle, which  appears  in  many 
archaic  vase  pictures  in  two  distinct  forms  :  either  as 
a  wide  cloak  covering  the  greater  part  of  the  body,  or 
as  a  narrow  covering  lightly  draped.  The  first  form, 
corresponding  to  the  later  male  himation,  is  most 
commonly  combined  with  the  long  chiton.  The  cut 
of  this  cloak  is  four-cornered,  probably  oblong,  and  it 
is  worn  in  such  a  way  that  the  greater  part  of  it  falls 
behind  and  covers  the  back  and  part  of  the  legs, 
while  in  front  it  is  thrown  over  the  shoulders  and 
arms,  and  falls  down  over  the  body,  two  of  its  points 
falling  within  the  arms  and  the  other  two  without. 
The  other  form,  which  may  be  in  general  compared 
with  the  later  chlamys,  is  found  with  both  the  long 
and  the  short  chiton,  and  is  also  sometimes  worn  as 
the  only  covering,  without  any  under  garment.  This 
may,  however,  be  regarded  as  the  ideal  clothing, 
which  does  not  correspond  to  real  life,  just  as  in  later 
monuments  we  find  the  chlamys  alone  without  the 
chiton.  It  is  put  on  in  such  a  way  that  the  lower 
arm  is  left  uncovered,  and  the  two  points  fall  down  in 
front  over  the  shoulder  and  upper  arm,  while  behind 
it  either  covers  only  the  upper  part  of  the  back,  or 
else  the  cloak  falls  down  so  far  that  its  edge  is  almost 
as  low  as  the  points  in  front.  (Compare  Fig^  3,  repre- 
senting a  dance  from  the  Franyois  vase.)  We  cannot 
pronounce  with  certainty  on  the  shape  of  this  cloak 
It  appears,  however,  to  have  been  oval  or  elliptical, 
and  to  have  ended  in  two  points;  it  was  folded  in 
such  a  way  that  the  folded  part  was  worn  inside, 
while  the  edges,  which  were  ornamented  with  wide 
borders,  fell  outside.  In  Fig.  2,  where  the  shape 
of  the  cloak  is  that  of  an  ellipse  cut  through  the 
long  axis,  the  folding  is  also  evident.  I  should  there- 
fore differ  from  Helbig  in  regarding  this  narrower 


8 


GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 


clilaina  as  the  garment  called  in  epic  poetry  diplax. 
Neither  kind  of  cloak  is  fastened,  and  they  both 
differ  from  that  of  later  periods  in  being  worn  open 
in  front.  In  Homeric  poetry  another  kind  of  chlaina 
is  also  mentioned,  which  corresponds  more  closely  to 
the  later  one;  since  it  is 
stated  that  the  folded 
chlaina  is  fastened  on  the 
shoulder  with  2  brooch. 
No  proof  of  this,  however, 
has  as  yet  been  found  in 
the  older  monuments. 

As  a  remnant  of  the 
most  primitive  dress, 
clothes  made  of  skins, 
such  as  were  afterwards 
worn  only  by  country 
people,  huntsmen  and  the 
like,  still  existed  in  the 
Homeric  age.  Homer 
several  times  mentions 
skins  as  the  dress  of 
soldiers ;  on  the  older 
monuments  we  see  them 
drawn  over  a  short  chiton, 
and  sometimes  even  fas- 
tened with  a  girdle. 

How  long  this  ancient 
dress  continued  in  use  we 
cannot  determine  with 
any  certainty ;  but  the  majority  even  of  vase  pictures 
with  black  figures  show  a  different  dress.  It  is  true, 
as  we  mentioned  just  now,  that  the  long  chiton  still 
continued  in  use  besides  the  short  one,  but  the  cut 
and  the  mode  of  wearing  it  changed. 


COSTUME.  9 

The  monuments  of  this  period  almost  always  show 
signs  of  drapery,  and  this  is,  moreover,  of  an  artificial, 
exaggerated,  and  pedantic  kind.  It  must  have  been 
the  fashion  at  that  time,  that  is,  from  the  sixth  till 
nearly  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century,  to  lay  the 
folds  of  men's  dress,  as  well  as  of  women's,  in  sym- 
metrically parallel  lines.  In  pictures  the  lower  edges 
of  dresses  and  cloaks  show  various  regularly  cut-out 
points,  while  on  the  inner  side  there  are  many  small 
zigzag  folds  arranged  with  laborious  symmetry. 
(Compare  Fig.  4,  "  The  Rape  of  Helen,"  after  a  vase 
picture  by  the  vase  painter  Hiero.)  This  may  be 
partly  due  to  the  artistic  style,  which  at  that  period 
inclined  to  over-elaboration;  yet  it  is  impossible  to 
doubt  that  we  find  here  not  only  an  expression  of 
archaic  art,  but  also  the  representation  of  a  dress 
laboriously  and  artificially  folded,  stiffened,  and  ironed, 
in  which  the  folds  were  produced  by  external  aids, 
such  as  ironing,  starching,  pressing,  even  stitching 
of  the  stuff  laid  in  folds,  or  sewing  such  folds 
on  to  the  material.  We  cannot  determine  when 
this  custom  began  in  Greece.  In  works  of  art  we  find 
it  comparatively  late  in  the  sixth  century  B.C.  ;  yet, 
as  Helbig  remarks,  it  is  by  no  means  impossible  that 
this  fashion  existed  at  a  far  more  ancient  period,  since 
the  custom  of  laying  material  in  artificial  folds  by  means 
of  stiffening  or  ironing  was  already  known  in  Egypt 
in  4000  B.C.  ;  and  it  therefore  seems  extremely 
probable  that  the  Phoenicians  adopted  the  practice 
at  a  very  early  period,  and  introduced  it  into  Greece. 
It  is  a  very  natural  assumption  that  this  mode  of 
draping  would  in  the  first  instance  be  adopted  for 
linen  material,  and  that  it  would  therefore  be  intro- 
duced among  the  Greeks  with  the  linen  chiton,  which 
took  the  place  of  the  woollen  one  formerly  worn. 


COSTUME.  11 

On  the  other  hand,  however,  it  is  probable  that,  as 
•woollen  clothing  was  afterwards  wort)  as  well  as 
linen,  they  attempted  to  ornament  this,  in  similar 
fashion  by  artificial  folds ;  the  works  of  art,  however, 
show  that  these  folds  were  far  less  in  quantity 
and  less  sharply  defined  in  woollen  clothing  than  in 
linen,  which  is  naturally  much  better  adapted  for 
the  purpose. 

Apart  from  the  folds,  the  clothes  now  became 
wider  and  more  comfortable,  and  were  less  closely 
girt  round  the  hips.  The  chiton  is  still  a  garment 
made  by  sewing,  and  the  long  differs  from  the  short 
only  in  length,  not  in  shape.  Both  are,  as  a  rule, 
so  cut  as  to  be  sewn  together  regularly  below  the 
girdle ;  above  the  girdle  they  are  sometimes  provided 
with  a  slit  on  one  side  to  facilitate  putting  on.  They 
usually  have  sleeves,  sometimes  short,  sometimes  long; 
these  are  either  fastened  all  round,  or,  as  is  also  the 
case  in  female  dress,  open  at  the  top  and  fastened  by 
pins  or  buttons.  In  this  case  the  chiton  is  sewn  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  be  all  in  one  above  the  girdle  as 
far  as  the  sleeve,  and  open  at  the  top,  so  that  the  slits 
for  the  arms  and  neck  are  connected  ;  the  wearer  puts 
the  chiton  over  his  head,  draws  up  the  sleeve  on  the 
upper  arm,  and  thus  supplies  the  opening  for  the 
neck.  Besides  this,  there  is  often  an  ornamental 
arrangement  such  as  we  find  in  the  female  dress  of 
the  same  period,  a  puff  of  regular  folds  (kolpos),  formed 
by  drawing  up  the  dress  over  the  girdle  and  letting 
the  piece  drawn  up  all  round  fall  again  over  the 
girdle ;  and,  in  addition,  a  bib  falling  over  the  breast 
in  zig-zag  folds,  which  appears,  as  a  rule,  to  be  a 
separate  piece  sewn  on  the  dress  at  the  opening  of 
the  neck.  In  Fig.  4  we  observe  the  kolpos  and  bib  over 
the  short  chiton  of  Hermes  in  the  centre,  the  bib 


12  GREEK    LIFE    AT    HOME. 

also  over  the  long  chiton  of  Paris  (on  the  left),  and  oi 
Tyndareus  (on  the  right) 

In  this  dress  we  already  find  the  elements  of  the 
male  costume  common  throughout  classic  Greece  in  the 
fifth  century.  It  is  modelled  on  the  ancient  elaborate 
style,  and  the  sewing  is  reduced  as  much  as  possible, 
while  the  garment  falls  in  regular  free  folds,  and  fits 
closely  to  the  figure.  According  to  Thucydides,  it 
was  at  Sparta  that  it  first  became  customary  to  adopt 
a  uniform  dress  for  the  whole  male  population,  and 
thus  to  do  away  with  a  distinction  which  had  hitherto 
prevailed  between  the  dress  of  poor  and  rich.  This 
distinction,  at  any  rate,  held  in  so  far  that  at  Athens 
the  richer  people,  as  Thucydides  states,  wore  the  long 
linen  chiton,  the  poorer  people  the  short  woollen  one. 
At  Athens  and  in  Ionia  the  long  linen  chiton  remained 
as  the  dress  of  older  people  till  shortly  before  the  time 
of  Thucydides ;  but  then  it  was  universally  discarded, 
or  rather  reserved  for  the  classes  mentioned  above,  and 
for  festive  occasions ;  while  the  short  woollen  chiton 
from  that  period  became  the  universal  dress.  This  is 
usually  found  in  the  form  of  a  widish  garment  sewn 
together  below  the  girdle,  and  above  it  divided  into 
two  parts,  a  front  and  back  piece,  put  on  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  be  fastened  together  by  pins  or  fibulae 
on  the  shoulder.  If  the  chiton  was  aUowed  to  fall 
quite  free  it  usuaUy  fell  down  about  as  far  as  the 
knees ;  but  it  was  customary,  especially  when  unim- 
peded and  free  movement  was  necessary,  to  draw  up  a 
part  above  the  girdle  and  let  it  fall  in  folds  below  it. 
(Compare  Fig.  5.)  Workmen,  countrymen,  sailors,  and 
others  whose  occupation  required  free  movement  of 
the  right  arm,  used  only  to  fasten  the  two  pieces  of  the 
chiton  on  the  left  shoulder,  then  the  points  of  the 
other  side  hung  down  in  front  and  behind,  and  left  the 


COSTUME. 


13 


right  breast,  shoulder,  and  arm  exposed.  This  garment, 
of  which  the  relief  in  Fig.  6  gives  a  representation, 


FIG.  5. 


was  called  exomis.  Strictly  speaking,  it  is  no  actual 
garment,  but  only  a  particular  way  of  wearing  the 
chiton  ;  but  special  tunics  for  labourers  were  made  ir 


FIG. 


COSTUME.  15 

this  fashion.  Besides  this,  chitons  were  afterwards; 
made  with  the  upper  part  also  sewn  together,  and 
with  armholes  or  short  sleeves,  which,  however,  never 
covered  more  than  a  part  of  the  upper  arm.  Long 
sleeves  falling  to  the  hand  belong  exclusively  to 
barbarian  costume.  Yet  the  bib,  which  as  late  as  the 
first  half  of  the  fifth  century  was  worn  with  the  male 
chiton  also,  is  not  a  part  of  later  costume. 

From  this  time  onward  the  name  "  hirnation  "  was 
used  for  the  cloak  worn  with  the  chiton,  while  ''  chlaina" 
was  only  retained  for  a  special  kind,  distinct  rather 
by  its  material  than  by  its  shape.  The  himation  was 
often  worn  in  the  oldest  period  in  the  way  described 
above,  that  is,  with  two  points  falling  on  the  two  sides 
in  front.  (Compare  the  Hermes  in  Fig.  4.)  But  it 
became  more  and  more  common,  and  from  the  classic 
period  onwards  quite  universal,  to  fold  the  cloak 
tightly  round,  and  this  was  done  as  follows.  One 
point  was  drawn  from  the  back  over  the  left  shoulder 
and  held  fast  here  between  the  chest  and  arm,  then 
the  cloak  was  drawn  round  over  the  back  in  wide 
folds  reaching  to  the  shins,  and  from  there  back  again 
to  the  front  on  the  right  side.  This  was  done  in  two 
ways.  If  the  right  arm  was  to  be  kept  free  the  hima- 
tion was  drawn  through  under  the  right  shoulder  and 
in  front  folded  across  the  body  and  chest,  while  the 
last  piece  was  thrown  back  across  the  left  shoulder 
(compare  the  Paris  in  Fig.  4  on  the  left),  or  else  over 
the  left  arm  (compare  the  man  on  the  right  in  Fig. 
4).  The  other  mode,  and  the  one  common  in  the 
dress  of  an  ordinary  citizen,  was  to  draw  the  cloak 
over  the  right  arm  and  shoulder,  so  that  at  most  the 
right  hand  was  exposed,  and  then  to  throw  it  back 
again  over  the  left  shoulder.  This  arrangement  was 
facilitated  by  small  weights  of  clay  or  lead  sewn  on 


FIG.  7. 


J 


COSTUME.  17 

the  points,  which  helped  to  keep  the  cloak  firm  in  its 
place.  It  was,  however,  a  special  art,  which  required 
practice,  and  probably  also  assistance,  to  produce  a 
beautiful  and  harmonious 
drapery  in  this  kind  of 
dress;  and  the  position  of 
the  wearer  showed  itself 
in  the  way  in  which  he 
wore  his  himation,  which 
ought  neither  to  be  drawn 
up  too  far,  nor  fall  too  low. 
It  was  also  regarded  as  in- 
elegant to  wear  the  cloak 
from  right  to  left.  There  is 
no  nobler  or  more  perfect 
example  of  this  costume, 
in  which  the  chiton  is  com- 
bined with  the  himation, 
than  the  portrait  statue  of 
Sophocles  in  the  Lateran 
given  in  Fig.  7.  Here  the 
wide  cloak  with  its  many 
folds  covers  the  form  hi 
such  a  way  as  not  to  hide 
the  shape  of  the  body,  and 
the  various  folds  caused  by 
the  position  of  the  arm 
and  the  mode  of  draping  Hal 
the  cloak  are  combined 
together  in  the  most  har- 
monious manner.  A  humorous  counterpart  of  this 
ideal  figure  is  Fig.  8  in  terra-cotta,  representing  a 
vulgar  citizen  in  chiton  and  himation. 

The  "  chlamys  "  was  a  special  kind  of  cloak  which 
originated  in  Thessaly,  but  from  the  fifth  century 


FIG.  8. 


18 


GREEK  LIFE  AT  HOME. 


onwards  became  common  in  Greece.  Originally  it  was 
a  soldier's  or  rider's  dress,  and  is,  therefore,  only  seen 
on  statues  worn  over  armour.  It  is  a  short  cloak  of 
light  material  and  oval  shape,  fastened  by  means  of  a 
brooch  either  in  front  at  the  neck,  or  more  commonly 
on  the  right  shoulder,  thus  covering  the  left  arm  and 
leaving  the  right  free.  (Compare  Figs.  9  and  10,  of 


FIG.  9. 

which  Fig.  9  shows  the  former  mode  of  wearing  the 
cloak,  while  in  Fig.  10  the  youth  with  the  spear  has 
his  whole  left  side  covered  by  the  chlamys.)  The 
chlamys  was  the  common  dress  of  youths  as  soon 
as  they  attained  their  majority  (tyrjfiela)  and  entered 
the  cavalry ;  till  that  age  they  wore  no  upper  gar- 
ment over  the  chiton  in  the  ancient  period,  but  in 
later  times  a  wide  himation,  hi  which  they  usually  en- 
veloped themselves  entirely.  It  was  regarded  as 
correct  for  modest  boys  not  to  have  their  arms  ex- 
posed. Hermes  also,  the  divine  representative  of 
youth,  usually  appears  in  the  chlamys,  but  this  is 


COSTUME.  19 

generally  lightly  folded  and  thrown  over  the  left  arm. 
Apollo  too,  except  where  he  wears  the  long  chiton  as 
harp-player,  is  usually  represented  on  works  of  art 
with  the  chlamys.  It  is,  however,  unusual  in  male 
dress,  with  the  exception  of  military  costume,  and  is 
never  found  in  combination  with  the  long  chiton. 


FIG.  10. 

At  home,  as  a  rule,  only  the  chiton  was  worn.  It 
was,  however,  not  considered  correct  to  be  seen  thus 
in  the  street :  only  artisans  or  eccentric  people  went 
out  without  a  cloak ;  but  it  was  just  as  incorrect  to 
appear  without  the  chiton,  only  in  the  himation 
or  chlamys.  It  is  true  this  is  very  common  on 
works  of  art  :  Zeus,  Poseidon,  and  some  other 
gods  are  represented  without  the  chiton,  and  only 
in  the  himation,  and  Hermes  and  Apollo  only  in  the 
chlamys  ;  and  even  in  representations  of  daily  life  we 
very  often  see  in  statues,  reliefs,  vase  pictures,  etc., 


20  GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 

men  without  under  garments,  clad  only  in  the  cloak 
(compare  the  youth  in  Fig.  9),  and  also  in  portrait 
figures.  This  is,  however,  a  liberty  taken  by  artists  in 
order  to  avoid  concealing  the  body  entirely  by  the 
dress,  but  by  no  means  corresponding  to  reality.  Only 
those  who  specially  desired  to  harden  their  bodies, 
and  also  poor  people  and  certain  philosophers  who 
wished  to  proclaim  their  cynic  principles  by  exceed- 
ingly scanty  dress,  went  out,  even  in  winter,  in  a 
cloak  without  an  under  garment.  Shirt  and  trousers 
were  unknown  in  Greek  male  dress  ;  the  latter  are 
Oriental,  and  therefore  only  appear  on  monuments 
representing  barbarous  persons. 

As  regards  female  dress,  it  may  be  stated  at  once 
that  the  strong  contrast  found  in  modern  times 
between  the  dress  of  men  and  women  is  foreign  to 
Greek  antiquity  :  both  have  essentially  the  same 
elements,  sometimes  even  the  same  shape ;  and  this 
similarity  becom  i  greater  the  nearer  we  get 
to  antiquity.  This  was  not  carried  so  far  that  a 
woman  could  simply  have  put  on  a  man's  under 
garment ;  in  fact,  even  the  Homeric  epics  distinguish 
the  woman's  peplos  from  the  man's  chiton.  Un- 
fortunately, both  the  shape  and  the  mode  ^f  wearing 
the  Homeric  peplos  are  matters  of  dispute  which 
cannot  be  satisfactorily  settled  by  the  words  of  the 
epic.  According  to  Helbig,  it  was  not  essentially 
different  from  the  long  male  chiton ;  like  this,  it 
descended  to  the  feet,  fitting  closely  and  without  folds 
to  the  figure,  and  was  provided  with  an  opening  for 
head  and  arms.  The  girdle  was  worn  rather  low 
down,  not  immediately  under  the  breast  or  round  the 
waist,  but  round  the  hips,  and  fell  down  somewhat  in 
front.  The  peplos  was  put  on  by  means  of  a  slit 
between  the  breasts,  which  often  descended  as  far  as 


COSTUME.  21 

the  feet,  and  was  fastened  by  a  large  number  of 
fibulae,  or  hooks.  Helbig  thinks  that  this  fashion  was 
due  to  Oriental  influence,  since  such  openings  are 
very  commonly  found  on  monuments  representing 
Oriental  nations. 

There  is  much  in  favour  of  Helbig's  hypothesis, 
especially  the  circumstance  that  a  dress  similar  in 
many  respects  appears  to  have  maintained  itself  for 
several  centuries.  The  vase  pictures,  as  well  as  several 
works  of  art,  show,  as  Boehlau  has  remarked,  that 
in  almost  all  the  Greek  states  (especially  Corinth, 
Chalcis,  Athens,  Megara,  Sparta,  as  well  as  Ionian  and 
Sicilian  towns)  a  closely-fitting  chiton  was  Avorn  by 
women  as  late  as  the  seventh,  perhaps  even  the  sixth, 
century.  This  was  not  drawn  over  the  head,  but  put 
on  like  our  dress  of  the  present  day,  and  open  in  front. 
Numerous  monuments  of  the  oldest  style  show  that 
slit  in  front,  and  it  appears  to  be  seldom  wanting 
in  very  ancient  pictures  of  the  deities.  This  chiton  is 
provided  with  tight  sleeves  falling  down  to  the  elbows, 
and  is  generally  adorned  at  all  the  edges  (accordingly 
round  the  neck  and  armholes,  as  well  as  round  the 
hem)  with  broad  stripes  and  patterns  of  various 
colours;  and  as  a  further  peculiarity  it  has  folds 
drawn  up  over  the  girdle  and  falling  on  each  side 
over  the  hips. 

Helbig's  hypothesis  concerning  the  Homeric  pep- 
los  :  that  it  had  a  long  opening  in  front  extend- 
ing to  the  feet,  has  been  energetically  combated  by 
Studniczka,  who  attempts  to  explain  differently  all 
the  passages  quoted  from  the  epics  in  support  of  the 
other  theory,  and  regards  the  strips  down  the  front 
found  on  monuments  as  merely  meant  for  ornamental 
purposes,  and  not  a  reminiscence  of  that  opening. 
Studniczka,  for  his  part,  considers  the  Homeric  female 


22  GREEK  LIFE  AT  HOME. 

dress  identical  with  the  so-called  Doric,  which  is 
described  to  us  by  writers  as  the  oldest  Greek  female 
dress,  in  place  of  which  the  Ionic  afterwards  came. 
His  first  assumption,  therefore,  is  that  the  dress  was 
not  sewn  and  arranged  for  slipping  on,  but  rather 
consisted  in  a  shawl-shaped  piece  of  stuff'  fastened  on 
the  shoulders  by  means  of  pins.  This  is  not  the 
fitting  place  to  discuss  this  controversy ;  we  must 
therefore  content  ourselves  with  alluding  to  it,  and 
refrain  from  deciding  in  favour  of  either  opinion, 
since  this  would  not  be  the  purpose  of  our  book 

Herodotus  informs  us,  concerning  the  female  dress 
of  the  historic  period,  that  the  Athenian  women  in 
olden  times  wore  the  Doric  dress,  a  woollen  chiton 
fastened  with  fibulae,  but  afterwards,  instead  of  this, 
adopted  the  Ionic  dress,  a  stitched  linen  chiton. 
However  simple  this  statement  may  sound,  it  is  by 
no  means  so  easy  to  trace  this  change  of  dress  on 
the  works  of  art.  These  show  us  female  dresses  in 
ancient  times  which  appear  to  have  been  sewn  rather 
than  pinned  together;  while  the  chiton  which  we 
find  in  the  classic  period  of  Greek  art  may  really  be 
traced  back  to  the  Doric  type.  It  is,  therefore,  com- 
prehensible that  attempts  lately  made,  especially  by 
Boehlau  and  Studniczka,  to  trace  the  transition  from 
the  ancient  Doric  to  the  later  Ionic  costume  on  works 
of  art,  should  have  led  to  very  different  results. 

If  we  look  at  the  female  dress  on  the  oldest  vase 
pictures  (compare  Figs.  1,  3,  11-15),  we  almost  always 
find  a  stiff  chiton  descending  without  folds  to  the 
feet  (the  Homeric  name  "  peplos  "  gradually  falls  into 
disuse),  which  could,  however,  in  no  case  be  as 
narrow  as  it  is  depicted,  else  it  would  be  impossible 
to  walk  in  it ;  the  feet  as  a  rule  are  uncovered,  but 
sometimes  the  dress  is  lengthened  behind  in  the  form 


COSTUME 


23 


of  a  train,  and  there  touches  the  ground.     (Compare 
Fig.  15.)  The  girdle  is  regularly  worn  with  this  chiton, 


FIG.  11. 


rather  high  up,  and  so  as  to  be  visible.  There  is  also 
a  second  garment  covering  breast  and  shoulders,  and 
falling  down  nearly  as  far  as  the  girdle.  How  this 


24  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

chiton  was  put  on,  and  how  the  upper  garment  was 
connected  with  it,  is  not  clear.  When  we  see  long 
borders  descending  from  the  girdle  to  the  feet  on 
some  figures,  and  also  continued  above  the  girdle  (as 
in  the  case  of  two  women  in  Fig.  11),  we  might  assume 
that  here  was  an  opening  for 
putting  on  the  dress;  but  we 
have  already  shown  above 
that  these  borders  are  often 
of  a  purely  ornamental  char- 
acter, and  have  no  structural 
importance;  and,  indeed,  they 
are  entirely  wanting  on  many 
chitons.  It  is,  therefore,  gener- 
ally assumed  that  the  garment 
represented  here  was  sewn  to- 
gether below,  and  thus  fastened 
all  round,  but  above  the  girdle 
was  open  at  the  side,  and  that 
the  bib  was  produced  by  mak- 
ing this  upper  part  double,  and 
fastening  the  folded  ends  on 
the  shoulders  with  pins,  thus 
corresponding  to  that  style 
which  is  commonly  called 

Doric.  In  fact,  the  point  of  the  dress,  passed  from  the 
back  to  the  front,  is  often  visible  on  the  shoulder  (com- 
pare Figs.  1,  3,  and  11) ;  sometimes  even  the  long  pin 
which  fastened  both  points  can  be  plainly  recognised 
(Fig.  11) ;  but  in  spite  of  this  there  is  a  great  deal  that 
this  hypothesis  does  not  explain.  It  is  true  we  may  re- 
concile with  it  the  occasional  appearance  of  different 
borders  at  the  neck  of  the  bib,  for  these  might  be  sewn 
on,  and  thus  this  garment  would  be  constructed  ready 
for  the  wearer,  while  in  the  corresponding  dress  of  the 


FIG.  12. 


COSTUME. 


25 


later  period  it  rested  with  the  wearer  to  draw  down  a 
shorter  or  longer  piece  of  her  chiton.  But  how  are 
we  to  explain  that  upper  part  of  the  chiton  in  such 
a  case  as  Fig.  12  ?  Here  it  is 
closely  fastened  at  the  side. 
Clearly  the  artist  wished  to  re- 
present an  armhole.  These  two 
facts  are  in  opposition  to  the 
previous  hypothesis,  unless  we 
assume  that  the  upper  part  also 
was  sewn  together  on  one  side, 
and  its  open  side  Avith  the  pins 
must  be  sought  on  the  left  side 
of  the  woman,  which  is  not 
visible  here.  It  is  still  more  re- 
markable when,  as  in  Fig.  13, 
the  painter  represents  the  lower 
part  of  the  chiton  with  a  pattern 
and  the  upper  plain ;  or,  as  in 
Fig.  14,  gives  different  patterns 
to  the  two  parts.  If  we  do  not 
attribute  this  to  the  arbitrary 
fancy  of  the  artist,  or  assume 
that  the  upper  part  of  the  chiton 
was  ornamented  with  a  different 
material  behind,  we  are  reduced 
to  the  opinion  which,  in  view  of 
similar  developments  in  the  dress 
of  a  later  period,  is  not  improb- 
able— that  this  upper  part  was 
sometimes  quite  separate  from  the  chiton,  and  was 
put  on  as  a  special  garment. 

With  this  costume  we  sometimes  find  an  over 
garment,  which  must  not,  however,  be  confused  with 
the  himation.  This  is  worn  over  the  chiton,  but 


FIG.   13. 


26 


GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 


fastened  in  by  the  girdle  also,  and  is  usually  open  on 
one  side.  (Compare  Fig.  15.)  This  upper  garment, 
which  usually  is  only  seen  below  the  girdle,  is  some- 
times made  of  the  same  material  as  the  bib,  some- 
times of  a  different  one,  but  it  usually  differs  in  colour 
and  pattern  from  the  garment  worn  under  it.  It  is 

not  very  evident 
from  the  vase 
pictures  how  this 
was  put  on,  but 
it  seems  to  have 
been  draped  and 
not  sewn,  and 
worn  over  the 
chiton  for  more 
elaborate  dress, 
and  fastened  to- 
gether with  it 
by  means  of  the 
girdle. 

With  this 
antique  costume 
thehimationwas 
worn  as  a  cloak, 
which,  bo  thin  its 

shape  and  in  the  mode  of  wearing,  corresponded  abso- 
lutely to  the  large  himation  worn  by  men  ;  like  this,  it 
specially  covered  the  back  and  fell  over  the  arms  in  two 
points.  There  is,  however,  this  distinction  between  the 
male  and  female  costume,  that  the  women  often  drew  this 
cloak  up  so  high  as  to  cover  the  back  of  the  head  (com- 
pare Fig.  1),  a  fashion  which  also  continued  in  later  times. 
The  change  which  we  see  gradually  produced  hi 
this  costume  on  works  of  art  has  been  often  regarded 
as  a  real  change  in  the  fashion,  but  was  probably 


**• 


28  GREEK  LIFE  AT  HOME. 

in  great  part  only  a  consequence  of  the  development 
of  art,  which  rendered  it  possible  to  represent  a  great 
deal  which  at  an  earlier  stage  could  not  be  depicted. 
As  in  the  case  of  male  dress,  the  dresses  on  the  vase 
pictures  gradually  become  wider  with  fuller  folds.  At 
first,  it  is  true,  they  are  still  so  narrow  that  if  a  long 
step  is  taken  the  shape  of  the  body  becomes  very 
distinct;  but  the  cylindrical  form,  quite  free  from 
folds,  which  the  earliest  vase  style  gives  to  the 
woman's  dress  below  the  girdle,  disappears  entirely. 
Besides  this  we  find,  instead  of  the  outer  wrap,  a 
puffing,  or  kolpos,  which  henceforth  is  the  character- 
istic of  the  female  dress.  This  was  arranged  in  various 
ways,  though  in  later  times  it  was  sometimes  dispensed 
with  altogether.  There  are  different  modes  of  pro- 
ducing this  kolpos :  sometimes  it  belongs  to  the  dress 
itself;  the  length  of  the  dress  then  so  far  exceeds  that 
of  the  body  that,  hi  order  to  prevent  the  hem  from 
dragging  on  the  ground,  a  piece  must  be  drawn  up 
above  the  girdle,  which  then  falls  down  hi  folds  below 
it,  and  in  the  fashion  of  the  time,  which  we  have  first 
to  deal  with,  often  descends  a  long  way,  not,  however, 
equally  all  round  the  waist,  but  only  in  front,  and 
probably  also  behind.  But  as  the  vase  pictures  often 
represent  this  upper  part  as  of  an  entirely  different 
material  from  the  under  dress,  it  is  possible  that  it 
was  sometimes  not  connected  with  the  chiton,  but  was 
a  distinct  garment  worn  over  the  under  dress,  and, 
like  the  chiton,  fastened  in  by  the  girdle.  (Compare 
Fig.  16.)  If  we  remember  that  in  the  ancient  dress  of 
the  previous  period,  the  bib  was  sometimes  a  distinct 
garment,  we  may  surmise  that  this  gradually  de- 
veloped into  the  kolpos  close  round  the  waist,  and 
that  the  fashion  of  constructing  this  girding  by  means 
of  the  chiton  itself,  and  not  by  a  separate  piece,  was  a 


COSTUME. 


29 


further  stage  in  this  development.  With  this  cos- 
tume we  usually  find  longish  sleeves,  reaching  below 
the  elbow,  as  a  rule  wide  and  puffed,  though  very 
narrow  round  the  armholes.  It  is  evident  that  a 
chiton  of  this  de- 
scription, as  well  as 
the  upper  garment, 
if  it  was  separate, 
was  entirely  con- 
structed by  sewing, 
and  was  put  on 
over  the  head  by 
passing  the  arms 
into  the  sleeves;  for 
we  nowhere  find  an 
opening  above  the 
girdle  in  this  dress. 
We  do,  however, 
find,  when  the 
upper  garment  is 
separate,  that  the 
chiton  has  an  open- 
ing  on  one  side  be-  C  f 
low  the  girdle.  If  \\ 
we  remember  the  FIG.  16. 

remark  of  Herod- 
otus previously  quoted  about  the  introduction  of  the 
stitched  Ionic  linen  chiton,  it  is  a  natural  assumption 
that  this  chiton,  which  was  entirely  put  together  by 
sewing,  and  worn  without  phis,  was  an  Ionic  garment; 
and  in  accordance  with  this  we  find  this  particular 
form  of  sleeve  on  Athenian  reliefs  as  well  as  on  those 
of  Asia  Minor. 

Contemporaneously  with   this   change  in   female 
dress,  the  elaboration  of  the  folds  mentioned  above 


30  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

with  cut-out  corners  and  regular  zigzag  folds,  pro- 
duced by  stiffening  and  ironing,  becomes  more  and 
more  apparent,  especially  round  the  hems  of  the 
lower  garments.  It  is  true  we  must  not  depend  too 
much  on  the  monuments,  for  we  often  observe  on 
these  that  only  the  front  hem  of  the  garment  has  the 
zigzag  folds,  while  the  back  hem  is  quite  plain,  with 
only  a  suggestion  of  the  necessary  stiff  folds.  (Com- 
pare Figs.  17  and  19.)  It  is  evident,  therefore, 
especially  hi  the  case  of  the  vase  painters,  that  this 
drapery  is  not  so  much  an  imitation  of  actual  costume 
as  a  peculiarity  of  the  artist's  style. 

If  we  may  draw  any  conclusion  from  the  above- 
mentioned  facts  as  to  the  differences  between  Doric 
and  Ionic  costume,  these  do  not  appear  to  be  funda- 
mental, affecting  the  shape  and  appearance  of  the 
whole  dress,  but  rather  to  have  depended  essentially 
on  the  mode  of  wearing,  for  the  Doric  chiton  was 
shaped  by  pinning,  the  Ionic  constructed  by  sewing. 
There  is,  however,  a  difference  of  material,  since  the 
Doric  chiton  was  woollen  and  the  Ionic  linen.  Nor 
must  we  understand  Herodotus  to  mean  that  the 
Doric  dress  disappeared  entirely  after  the  introduction 
of  the  Ionic,  for  the  monuments  show  us  clearly  that 
both  kinds  existed  side  by  side ;  so  that  just  at  the 
time  of  Herodotus  the  chiton,  which,  at  any  rate  in 
its  upper  part,  was  not  sewn,  but  fastened  by  pins  or 
buttons,  was  the  more  common.  It  is  true  that 
fashion,  which  was  just  as  important  in  antiquity 
as  now,  is  apparent  in  various  changes,  and  these 
are  especially  conspicuous  in  pictures  by  the  vase 
painters  of  the  fifth  century,  such  as  Hiero,  Duris, 
Brygos,  etc.  On  these  monuments  (compare  Figs. 
4,  18,  19)  the  female  dress  is  much  wider  and 
fuller  than  before,  the  kolpos  goes  all  round  the 


COSTUME.  31 

body,  and  falls  down  below  the  hips  almost  to  the 
knees.  There  is  a  sort  of  mantle,  which  falls  a 
little  way  below  the  breast ;  there  are  almost  always 
sleeves,  as  there  were  in  the  previous  fashion,  but 


FIG.  17. 

they  are  generally  less  puffed  and  have  no  narrow 
armhole,  but  a  wide  opening  at  the  arms.  The 
mode  of  putting  on  the  chiton  is  also  different,  and 
corresponds  to  the  Doric  fashion ;  the  sleeves  are  not 
sewn  together  all  round,  but  have  a  slit  at  the  top,  so 
that  when  the  chiton  is  put  on  it  is  quite  open  there. 


GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 


The  drawing  together  of  the  sleeve  openings  by 
little  fibulae  or  buttons  fastens  the  chiton  together 
at  the  neck,  and  gives  the  whole  dress  consistency. 
Fig.  17,  a  cithara  player  about  to  tie,  or  possibly 


FIG.  18. 

to  unloose,  the  girdle  which  fastens  her  upper  gar- 
ment, shows  this  method  of  putting  on  and  fastening 
the  upper  garment  very  plainly.  However,  the  bib, 
which  is  usually  found,  is  absent  here. 

But  if  we  look  somewhat   more  closely  at  this 
costume,  we  find  in  it  a  sort  of  combination  of  the 


COSTUME.  33 

Doric  and  Ionic.  The  mantle  is  due  to  the  former, 
the  kolpos  to  the  latter:  the  fastening  with  fibulae 
is  characteristic  of  the  former,  the  sewing  of  the  latter. 
For  we  must  regard  a  chiton  like  that  worn  by  the 
Maenad  on  the  left  in  Fig.  18  as  one  connected  piece, 
one  wide  garment,  more  than  twice  the  length  of  the 
body,  sewn  together  round  the  sides,  open  at  top  and 
bottom,  out  of  which  the  wearer  constructed  the  bib 
and  sleeves  by  drawing  up  the  folds  and  letting  them 
fall  over  the  girdle,  and  by  fastening  or  buttoning  on 
the  arms  and  shoulders.  There  is,  however,  reason  to 
suppose  that  parts  of  this  dress  were  sometimes  separ- 
ately constructed  of  different  material.  On  the  vase 
pictures  of  that  period  the  various  parts  of  the  dress 
are  sometimes  characterised  by  different  drapery.  As 
a  rule,  the  folds  of  the  dress  are  marked  by  unbroken 
black  lines;  but,  besides  these,  we  sometimes  find 
reddish  brown,  zigzag,  or  wavy  lines  (thus  in  Fig.  17, 
the  upper  part  of  the  woman's  dress  ;  in  Fig.  18,  the 
kolpos  of  the  Maenad  on  the  right ;  in  Fig.  19,  the 
kolpos  and  the  sleeve).  When  we  observe  (as  in 
Fig.  18)  that  in  other  figures  the  corresponding  parts 
of  the  dress  are  all  marked  by  the  same  lines,  we  find 
ourselves  almost  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
artists  wished  to  represent  distinct  garments  separ- 
ately put  on,  especially  as  this  distinction  of  unbroken 
and  zigzag  folds  can  also  be  traced  in  sculpture.  It 
would  be  very  easy  to  imagine  it  in  such  a  dress  as 
that  hi  Fig.  17 ;  for  if  in  Fig.  16  the  upper  garment 
above  the  girdle  is  distinct,  it  might  also  be  the  case  in 
Fig.  17.  But  such  an  assumption  would  be  more  diffi- 
cult, nay,  almost  impossible,  for  Fig.  18.  If  we  assume 
distinct  material  for  the  kolpos,  the  woman  would  be 
wearing  three  separate  garments — the  long  chiton, 
which  simply  covers  the  whole  body,  the  kolpos,  and 


34  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

over  that  a  distinct  upper  garment  with  sleeves.  The 
dress  in  Fig.  19  would  be  no  less  complicated.  It 
seems,  therefore,  that  we  ought  not  to  lay  too  much 
stress  on  that  treatment  of  the  folds ;  probably 
the  artists  made  use  of  it  in  order  to  distinguish  some- 
times between  the  wavy  folds 
of  full  garments,  sleeves,  etc., 
and  the  stiff  folds  of  the  per- 
pendicular skirt.  For  we  may 
observe  that  the  wavy  folds  are 
never  found  in  these  perpen- 
dicular garments,  such  as  the 
chiton  and  the  bib. 

If  the  vase  painters  are  to 
be  relied  on,  especially  in  the 
arrangement  of  the  girding,  the 
fashion  at  Athens  in  the  middle 
of  the  fifth  century  B.C.  was  still 
rather  heavy  and  awkward.  It 
was  not  until  the  excessive  ful- 
ness of  the  girding  was  limited 
that  it  developed  that  regular 
and  truly  noble  dress  which  we 
admire  in  the  female  figures  of 
classic  art  and  the  following 
period.  Still  the  dress  is  by  no 
means  uniform,  for  the  same  chiton  can  be  worn 
in  various  ways,  according  to  the  arrangement  of  the 
girding  and  bib.  The  vase  picture  in  Fig.  20  gives 
examples  of  this.  There  were,  in  particular,  two 
methods.  The  one  was  to  cover  the  body  from  the 
feet  to  the  shoulders  with  a  piece  of  stuff,  and  to 
fasten  this  by  drawing  the  points  of  the  folded  back 
piece  over  the  shoulders  and  hooking  them  to  the 
pointi  pf  the  front  piece,  which  was  also  doubled 


Fis.  19. 


COSTUME.  35 

back.  Then  the  extra  piece  fell  down  at  the  back 
and  front,  and  the  girdle  was  passed  over  it.  The 
stuff  was  then  drawn  up  a  little  over  the  girdle, 
while  the  ends  of  the  garment  fell  down  over  the 


hips.  Strictly  speaking,  the  kolpos  here  fell 
over  the  bib.  (Compare  the  figure  on  the  left.) 
The  second  plan  was  to  take  a  longer  piece  of 
the  chiton  than  was  required  below  the  girdle,  so 
that  the  remainder  feU  on  the  ground ;  the  upper 
part  was  drawn  up  to  the  shoulders  and  fastened  there 
by  fibulae,  either  in  such  a  way  that  these  were  visible 
(in  that  case  the  doubled  pieces  were  fastened  together), 
or  so  that  the  pins  were  hidden  by  the  front  piece 


36 


GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 


Fio.  21. 


(then  the  doub- 
led piece  at  the 
back  was  fas- 
tened to  the 
under  layer  of 
the  front  piece, 
as  in  Fig.  20). 
The  bib  then  fell 
freely  over  the 
breast  and  back 
till  a  little  above 
the  waist,  the  su- 
perfluous piece 
below  was  drawn 
up  over  the 
girdle.  The 
manner  of  ar- 
ranging this  kind 
of  dress,  which  is 
the  commoner,  is 
very  clearly  seen 
hi  the  bronze 
statue  from  Her- 
culaneum  repre- 
sented in  Fig. 
21.  The  girl,  who 
is  in  the  act  of 
dressing  herself, 
has  already 
girded  the 
chiton,  and  is 
now  arranging 
the  bib  ;  she  has 
fastened  it  on 
the  left  shoulder, 


COSTUME. 


37 


and  is  now  drawing  the  folded  back  piece  over  the 
right  shoulder  with  her 
right  hand,  in  order  to  pin 
to  it  the  front  piece,  which 
she  holds  in  her  left  hand 
in  such  a  way  that  the  back 
piece  may  fall  over  the 
front  piece.  The  points  of 
both  then  fall  over  the  hips 
to  right  and  left  a  little 
more  than  half-way  down 
the  front  breadth.  To  com- 
plete her  dress,  the  girl  will 
then  draw  up  part  of  the 
garment,  which  is  too  long 
for  walking,  over  the  girdle, 
and  this  will  appear  below 
the  bib.  In  the  dress  of 
the  best  period  this  puff- 
ing does  not  fall  as  low  as 
before  (or  as  that  on  Fig. 
20).  It  is  so  arranged  that 
the  folds  fall  lower  on  the 
sides  than  in  the  middle, 
so  that  its  lines  may  follow 
the  outline  of  the  bib,  the 
points  of  which  fall  lower 
at  the  sides.  Thus  origin- 
ated that  beautiful  costume, 
inspired  by  a  truly  artistic 
spirit,  which  we  admire  in  , 
the  best  Attic  works  of  the 
age  of  Pheidias.  As  an  ex- 
ample of  this,  compare  Fig.  22,  a  Caryatid,  from  the 
Erechtheum  at  Athens. 


FIG.  22. 


FIG.  23. 


COSTUME.  39 

With  this  dress  sleeves,  like  those  above  described, 
are  sometimes,  but  not  always,  worn.  They  are 
usually  half-sleeves,  with  openings  fastened  by  buttons 
or  fibulae,  not  pieces  separately  sewn  on,  but  part  of 
the  actual  chiton. 

The  last-described  form  of  the  chiton,  which 
formed  the  kolpos  and  bib  by  means  of  the  girdle 
and  pins,  continued  in  the  next  period,  and  seems  not 
only  to  have  extended  throughout  Greece,  but  also 
throughout  later  Greek  antiquity  down  to  the  Roman 
period.  But  there  were  also  several  other  styles  of 
dress,  distinguished  partly  by  their  shape,  partly  by 
the  manner  of  wearing.  Thus,  for  instance,  the 
general  form  of  the  chiton  was  retained,  but  the  dress 
was  made  more  comfortable  by  the  separate  con- 
struction of  the  bib,  which,  as  we  observed,  was 
probably  the  case  at  an  earlier  period  too,  and 
by  sometimes  omitting  it  altogether.  Sometimes, 
again,  only  a  light  chiton  was  worn  without  any 
kolpos  or  bib,  either  with  a  girdle  which  was  some- 
times worn  above  the  waist  (compare  Fig.  23,  "  A 
Daughter  of  Niobe "),  or  sometimes  falling  quite 
freely  (compare  Fig.  24).  Afterwards  it  was  not 
unusual  for  the  bib  to  fall  below  the  girdle,  while  the 
kolpos  was  entirely  absent  (compare  Fig.  25),  or  else 
fell  above  the  bib  (compare  Fig.  20).  In  the  graceful 
female  figure  in  Fig.  26  there  is  another  peculiarity. 
Here,  as  in  Fig.  25,  the  chiton  is  open  at  one  side, 
even  below  the  hips,  which  was  not  the  case  with  the 
ordinary  dress,  especially  that  worn  out  of  doors.  It 
is  probable  that  this  was  the  original  form  of  the 
so-called  Doric  chiton,  for  it  is  thus  that  the  Doric 
maidens  were  dressed,  and  on  this  account  were 
mockingly  described  as  "  showing  their  hips."  In  the 
ideal  figures  the  chiton  of  Artemis  and  the  Amazons, 


GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 


though  shorter,  is  of  the  same  kind.    The  form  of  the 
chiton  fastened  together  all  round  originated  so  early 


FIG.  24. 


that   we   only  find    the    kind   open   at    the   side  in 
rare   instances    on    the    oldest  monuments.       This 


COSTUME. 


41 


chiton  corresponds  in  shape  most  closely  to  the 
short  male  chiton ;  like  this,  it  often  only  ex- 
tends to  the  knees,  and  is  fastened  on  the  shoulders 
by  pins  without  forming 
the  bib.  The  dress  with 
regular  sleeves  is  also  found 
in  the  later  costume,  either 
connected  with  the  under 
garment  or  specially  con- 
structed so  as  to  cover 
only  the  upper  part  of  the 
body.  It  was  fastened  to- 
gether all  round,  and  opened 
at  the  sleeves,  which  were 
constructed  by  buttons. 

The  himation  continued 
to  be  the  usual  upper  gar- 
ment. In  the  older  costume 
of  the  sixth  and  fifth  centuries 
it  is  often  treated  as  a  scarf 
in  the  manner  above  de- 
scribed, with  two  points  fall- 
ing down  in  front  over  the 
shoulders  (compare  Figs.  4 
and  24),  but  afterwards 
women  began  to  wear  the 
himation  in  the  same  way  as 
men,  either  enveloping  the 
arms  entirely  or  leaving  the 
right  arm  free  (compare 
Fig.  23).  A  third  mode  of  wearing  the  himation,  which, 
however,  is  commoner  in  older  than  in  later  costume, 
is  to  draw  it  from  the  right  shoulder  across  the 
breast  to  the  left  hip,  leaving  the  left  breast  un- 
covered, and  letting  the  points  fall  down  on  the  right 


Fio.  25. 


42 


GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 


side  of  the  body.     In  the  pictures  it  often  looks  as 
though  the  hhnation  were  fastened  on  the  shoulder 


FIG.  26. 

by  pins,  or  even  stitched  together.     We  also  find  a 
light  kind  ot  shawl,  put  on  something  in  the  manner 


COSTUME.  43 

of  the  scarf  worn  by  ladies  some  forty  or  fifty  years 
ago.  In  fact,  there  seem  to  have  been  many  varieties 
of. female  dress  in  the  Alexandrine  period,  but  we  are 
not  intimately  acquainted  with  the  details,  as  our 
principal  authorities,  the  vase  pictures,  at  that  time 
no  longer  confined  themselves  as  strictly  as  in  the 
older  periods  to  the  prevailing  fashion.  In  one  of 
Theocritus'  idylls  a  woman  puts  on  first  her  chiton, 
then  a  peronatris  (a  robe  fastened  by  clasps)  of 
costly  material,  and  over  that  an  ampechonion.  It  is 
not  clear  what  sort  of  garment  this  peronatris  was. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  terra-cottas  of  that  period 
often  represent  graceful  female  forms  in  walking  dress, 
that  is,  in  the  chiton  and  himation.  Thus  La  Fig. 
27,  a  and  6,  we  see  a  woman  in  a  long  dress  with  a 
train,  wearing  over  it  a  cloak  drawn  over  her  head  in 
such  a  manner  that  only  her  face  is  visible.  To  pro- 
mote freedom  of  motion  her  cloak  is  drawn  up  over 
both  arms,  which  are  closely  enveloped.  In  a  similar 
matron-like  dress  is  the  lady  represented  in  the  terra- 
cotta figure,  No.  28.  She  holds  up  her  long  himation 
daintily  with  both  hands,  to  enable  her  to  walk  more 
easily. 

We  cannot  with  certainty  prove  the  existence  of  a 
chemise,  since  those  expressions  which  are  generally 
thus  interpreted  appear  to  relate  to  different  kinds  of 
chitons.  Sometimes  we  see  in  vase  pictures  repre- 
senting scenes  from  the  baths  short  garments  with 
little  sleeves,  which  cannot  well  be  anything  but 
chemises,  worn  under  the  actual  chiton.  We  must 
not,  however,  assume  that  these  were  universally 
worn ;  far  commoner  was  the  band  called  strophion. 
corresponding  to  the  modern  corset,  used  to  check 
the  excessive  development  of  the  breasts,  or  to  hold 
them  up  when  the  firmness  of  youth  was  gone. 


44 


GREEK    LIFE    AT   HOME. 


We  know  very  little  about  the  colour  and  pattern 
of  the  dresses.     The  clothing  worn  by  men,  or,  at  any 

rate,  those  of  the  lower 
classes  who  laboured 
in  the  workshop  or 
in  the  field,  was  cer- 
tainly dark,  either  of 
the  natural  colour  of 
the  wool  or  dyed 
brown,  grey,  etc. 
Otherwise  the  com- 
monest colour  for  the 
chiton  and  himation 
was  white,  and,  as 
such  garments  natur- 
ally soon  got  dirty, 
they  were  often  sent 
to  the  fuller,  who 
washed  them  and  gave 
them  fresh  brightness 
by  means  of  pipeclay 
and  similar  methods. 
On  festive  occasions 
gaily-coloured  dresses 
were  usually  worn, 
and  then  even  simple 
people  indulged  in 
the  luxury  of  bright 
colour;  though,  as  a 
rule,  to  display  this  in 
ordinary,  every  -  day 
life  was  regarded  in 
the  better  ages  of 

Greek  antiquity  as  a  mark  of  vanity  or  characteristic 
of  a  dandy.     Naturally,  women  were  more  inclined  to 


Fio.  27a. 


COSTUME. 


45 


bright  hues,  and  they  were  especially  fond  of  saffron- 

coloured  dresses,  and  also  of  materials  with  coloured 

borders  and   rich   designs. 

Generally  speaking,  we  may 

infer  from  the  works  of  art 

that  bright  colour  and  rich 

ornamentation  were   most 

popular  in  the  oldest  period, 

and  afterwards  again  in  the 

epoch   of  declining   taste; 

while    the    classic    period 

made  but  a  sparing  use  of 

either.      The    older    vase 

pictures  almost  always  re- 

present materials  with 

coloured    patterns,    either 

purely  ornamental  designs 

(compare  Figs.  10,  11,  13), 

or  with  representations  of 

figures.     Sometimes  whole 

scenes  fall  of    figures   in 

coloured  embroidery   were 

part  of  the  dress,  and  this 

was  sometimes  arranged  in 

rows,  like  the  decorations 

on    pots    in    ancient     art. 

(Compare  Fig.  12.)     This  is 

quite  natural  if  we  consider 

that  in   the  more  ancient 

costume     there    was 

scarcely    any    drapery; 

both  the  chiton  and  the 

cloak  were  drawn  tightly 

round  the  figure,  and,  therefore,  the  pictures  could  be 

fuUy  developed  and  seen  without   any  interruption 


FIG.  27*. 


46  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME 

from  folds.     Purely  ornamental  patterns  are  also  very 
common,  and  show  great  variety,  but  very  seldom 

good  designs. 
Checks  and  dia- 
monds were  especi- 
ally popular. 

As  the  fashion 
hi  dress  changed,  so 
did  the  use  of  ma- 
terials with  patterns ; 
for  garments  worn 
at  religious  cere- 
monies, or  by  actors, 
the  coloured  em- 
broidery was  re- 
tained;  but  in 
ordinary  life  the 
men,  and  even 
women,  gradually 
discarded  it,  or  at 
any  rate  reduced  it 
to  moderate  propor- 
tions compared  with 
.the  rich  fulness  of 
ornament  in  the 
older  fashion,  which 
almost  concealed 
the  real  colour  of  the 
dress.  This  is  especi- 
ally noticeable  in 
the  chiton  when  it 
falls  in  free  folds, 
while  the  old-fashioned  chiton,  which  had  very  few 
folds,  bore  bolder  designs.  It  is  also  the  case  with 
the  himation,  which  even  in  the  classic  period,  when 


COSTUME.  47 

it  no  longer  fell  stiff  and  straight  over  the  back, 
but  was  drawn  round  the  body  in  plentiful  drapery, 
was  often  richly  adorned  with  embroidery.  The 
reason  is  probably  because  such  shawl-like  gar- 
ments are  more  loosely  related  to  the  body,  and 
therefore  the  introduction  of  a  pattern  which 
weakened  the  impression  of  the  figure  is  less  dis- 
turbing here  than  in  the  chiton.  However,  these 
bright-coloured  cloaks  were  exceptional  luxuries. 
The  fashion  of  the  better  period  shows  its  classic 
sense  of  beauty  in  forming  chiton  and  cloak  from 
materials  of  one  colour,  and  merely  introducing  orna- 
ments at  the  seams  and  edges,  and  these  such  as  are 
of  especial  beauty  and  noble  simplicity. 

In  the  fourth  century  B.C.  a  gradual  decline  is  again 
observable,  and  after  the  time  of  Alexander  the 
Great  rich  designs,  sometimes  introducing  figures, 
become  commoner,  even  in  purely  Hellenic  dress. 
Numerous  examples  on  works  of  art  show  us  the 
unaesthetic  and  absurd  side  of  this  fashion.  The 
elaborate  patterns  give  a  disturbing  appearance  to 
the  whole  figure;  the  outline  of  the  body  is  com- 
pletely hidden  by  the  dress ;  and  when  the  drapery 
is  disturbed  or  folded,  in  the  case  of  borders  or 
materials  covered  with  figures,  the  result  is  some- 
times very  ridiculous. 

As  regards  the  material  of  the  dresses,  we  men- 
tioned above  that  when  the  change  described  by  Herod- 
otus was  made,  the  linen  chiton  was  introduced,  but 
woollen  materials  were  not  on  that  account  dis- 
carded ;  and  as  men  ceased  to  wear  the  chiton  long, 
it  became  commoner  to  make  it  of  wool.  The  oldest 
sculpture  as  a  rule  represents  two  distinct  materials 
when  once  we  get  beyond  the  tight-fitting  costume  of 
the  earliest  period.  One  of  these  shows  fine  and  flat 


48  GREEK   LIFE    AT   HOME. 

folds,  while  the  other  falls  in  large,  deep  folds.  We 
cannot  always  maintain  with  certainty  that  these  are 
two  distinct  materials,  the  former  wool,  the  latter 
linen ;  sometimes  it  seems  as  though  there  were  only 
two  qualities  of  the  same  material,  one  being  fine  and 
thin,  and  the  other  coarse  and  thick.  Yet  the  fre- 
quent use  of  linen  is  proved  by  the  regular  parallel 
and  zigzag  folds  so  common  in  the  older  art,  which 
could  only  be  produced  in  linen  by  artificial  means. 

As  a  rule,  they  wore,  as  we  do,  lighter  stuffs  in  the 
summer  and  heavier  ones  hi  the  whiter ;  but  though 
we  very  often  find  on  archaic  monuments  transparent 
garments  showing  distinctly  the  outline  of  the  body 
(compare  Figs.  18,  24),  we  are  scarcely  justified  in 
assuming  a  very  widespread  use  ot  really  transparent 
garments.  Even  though  such  thin  materials  may 
have  been  worn  at  that  time,  especially  by  hetaerae, 
their  extensive  use  in  vase  painting  is  probably  due 
to  the  fact  that  the  painters,  not  knowing  how  to 
represent  the  outline  of  the  body  and  the  movements 
of  the  limbs  'under  the  dress,  and  yet  desiring  not  to 
hide  them  completely  by  the  clothes,  resorted  to  this 
expedient  of  letting  the  outline  appear  through  the 
dress  material.  These  thin  stuffs  were  always  common 
in  the  dress  of  the  hetaerae,  but  respectable  women 
used  them  only  as  under  garments.  We  may,  how- 
ever, assume  that  this  was  also  a  matter  of  fashion, 
since  materials  from  the  looms  of  the  island  of 
Amorgos,  which  were  especially  noted  for  their  fine- 
ness and  transparency,  were  only  fashionable  for  a 
short  time  in  the  period  of  the  older  Attic  comedy. 
Later  allusions  to  these  stuffs  are  made  chiefly  by  the 
learned,  and  do  not  refer  to  actual  reality.  Moreover, 
it  is  natural  that  the  circumstances  of  the  persons 
concerned  played  a  part  in  the  choice  of  coarser  or 


COSTUME. 


49 


finer  materials.  The  stuffs  introduced  from  foreign 
parts,  such  as  cotton  and  muslin,  could  only  be  worn 
by  the  rich,  as  also  silk,  which,  even  in  the  Alexandrine 
period,  was  very  rare  and  expensive.  On  the  other 
hand,  common  men  wore  felt -like  materials,  and 
countrymen  even  tunics  of  skin  or  leather. 

In  Greek  antiquity  coverings  for  the  feet  were  not 


FIG.  29. 

so  essential  an  article  of  clothing  as  at  the  present 
day,  at  any  rate  not  for  the  male  portion  of  the 
population.  At  home,  and  in  summer,  men  as  a  rule 
went  barefoot;  artisans  and  other  members  of  the 
lower  classes  and  slaves  did  so  out-of-doors  also,  as 
well  as  people  who  desired  to  harden  their  bodies, 
like  Socrates,  or  those  who  perhaps  only  affected  an 
ascetic  mode  of  life,  like  some  of  the  Cynic  philo- 
sophers. At  Sparta,  where  the  State  took  cognisance 
of  the  dress  and  food  of  the  citizens,  young  men  were 
actually  forbidden  to  wear  shoes,  and  many  adhered 
to  this  habit  even  in  old  age,  as,  for  instance, 


50 


GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 


Agesilaus,  who,  even  as  an  old  man,  used  to  go 
without  shoes  and  chiton,  dressed  only  in  his  cloak. 
Still,  it  was  unusual  for  men  to  go  out  of  doors  in 
winter  barefoot,  as  Socrates  is  said  to  have  done 
during  his  campaign  in  Macedonia. 


Fio.  30. 


Generally  speaking,  the  footgear  of  the  Greeks 
was  of  two  kinds :  sandals,  that  is,  in  ere  soles  tied 
under  the  foot,  and  actual  boots.  Between  the  two, 
however,  there  were  a  great  number  of  transition 
stages,  so  that  it  is  sometimes  impossible  to  say  to 
which  of  the  two  classes  some  kinds  belonged. 
Sandals,  which  were  probably  the  oldest  kind,  and 
in  Homer  apparently  the  only  one,  were  worn  by  men 
and  women  alike,  though  far  more  commonly  by  the 


COSTUME  51 

latter.  They  consisted  of  a  sole  made  of  several 
thicknesses  of  strong  leather,  with  sometimes  a  layer 
of  cork ;  to  this  straps  were  fastened,  which  passed 
across  the  foot  and  held  them  firm.  For  this  purpose 
(compare  the  selection  in  Fig.  29,  taken  from  works 
of  art)  a  pair  of  straps  passing  over  the  instep  and 


Fio.  31. 

heel  were  often  sufficient,  and  these  were  either  tied 
or  fastened  in  such  a  way  that  another  strap,  passing 
between  the  first  and  second  toes,  was  connected  with 
the  other  two,  which  were  fastened  to  the  edge  of  the 
sole  and  buckled  on  the  instep,  the  buckle  usually 
having  the  shape  of  a  heart  or  a  leaf.  But  these 
straps  were  often  more  numerous,  and  so  complicated 
as  to  cover  almost  the  whole  foot,  and  thus  resemble 
a  perforated  shoe.  Sometimes  they  were  continued 
as  far  as  the  ankle,  or  even  the  shins  (compare  the 
examples  in  Fig.  30),  but  this  is  only  the  case  in 


52  GREEK  LIFE   AT  HOME. 

men's  dress.  Costly  and  brightly-coloured  leather, 
with  gilt  and  other  ornaments,  made  this  footgear, 
which  was  naturally  simple,  both  ornamental  and 
expensive. 

The  boots  were  something  like  ours  ;  they  covered 


FIG.  32. 


the  whole  foot,  and  were  laced  or  buttoned  in 
front,  over  the  instep,  or  at  the  side.  In  the  older 
period  men's  boots  generally  went  above  the  ankle, 
and  at  the  front  edge  had  a  more  or  less  pointed 
tongue  bent  forward.  (Compare  examples  in  Fig.  31, 
which  also  show  us  how  this  tongue  gradually  became 
smaller,  and  at  last  disappeared  entirely.)  Afterwards, 
low  shoes,  generally  stopping  short  of  the  ankle,  were 
the  rule,  especially  for  women,  if  they  did  not  wear 
sandals.  Fig.  32  gives  various  examples  of  this :  they 


COSTUME.  53 

are  usually  pointed  at  the  toes,  and  old  Spartan  reliefs 
even   represent   shoes  with  points  in   front    as   part' 


Fio.  33. 


of  female   dress.     Huntsmen,   countrymen,  and   the 
like,   wore   high   boots   reaching  to    the    shins    (ev- 
laced  or  buttoned  in  front,  as  in  Fig.  33. 


54 


GREEK  LIFE  AT  HOME. 


These  generally  had  broad  toes  and  thick  soles,  but 
like  the  ordinary  shoes  they  had  no  heels.  A  common 
decoration  of  such  boots  were  broad  zigzag  lappets  of 
leather,  falling  down  from  the  upper  edge,  as  in  the 
examples  in  Fig.  34.  Between  sandals  and  boots  we 
find  various  forms  of  low  shoes,  in  which  the  foot  is 
partly  covered  with  leather  and  partly  with  straps. 
Thus  there  was  a  kind  of  slipper  covering  the  upper 


FIG.  34. 


part  of  the  foot  in  front,  while  the  back  was  covered 
with  straps,  and  another  kind  which  left  the  toes 
quite  free  and  covered  the  rest  of  the  foot.  Probably 
the  crepida,  which  only  originated  in  the  Alexan- 
drine period,  but  then  became  very  common,  belonged 
to  this  class,  and  was  a  shoe  with  low  leather  sides, 
from  which  straps  passed  across  the  foot.  Other 
kinds  of  shoes  we  know  only  by  their  antique  names. 
Thus  there  was  an  elegant  kind  worn  by  guests 
invited  to  dinner  (/SXairrat);  and  a  coarser  kind 
worn  chiefly  by  peasants  (Kap^anvaC)  made  of 
rough  leather,  and  probably  not  on  a  block,  but 
roughly  sewn  together  by  the  country  people  them- 


COSTUME  55 

selves.  In  fact,  the  number  of  names  for  footgear 
used  by  the  ancient  writers  is  very  large,  and  we 
may  thence  conclude  that  the  fashion  changed  fre- 
quently. Thus  in  Greece  there  were  shoes  of  the 
Persian  fashion.  At  Athens  they  wore  Laconian 
shoes ;  Amyclaean,  Sicyonian,  Rhodian  shoes,  and 
others  which  are  also  mentioned,  probably  refer  more 
to  the  shape  than  to  the  origin.  There  were  also 
shoes  called  after  celebrated  men,  who  probably  made 
use  of  them,  such  as  Alcibiades  shoes,  Iphicrates 
shoes,  etc. ;  but  we  cannot  illustrate  all  these  from 
works  of  art,  in  spite  of  the  rich  variety  supplied  by 
them.  They  also  distinguished  between  shoes  which, 
like  our  slippers,  could  be  worn  on  either  foot,  and 
those  which  were  made  on  particular  lasts  for  the 
right  and  left  foot.  The  latter  were  regarded  as 
more  elegant,  for  they  laid  great  stress  on  having 
shoes  well-fitting  and  not  too  wide.  They  said  of 
people  who  wore  too  comfortable  shoes  that  they 
"  swam  about "  in  them.  It  was  a  mark  of  poverty 
or  avarice  to  wear  patched  boots,  and  heavy 
nailed  shoes  were  only  worn  by  soldiers  or  country 
people,  and  for  others  were  regarded  as  a  mark  of 
rusticity. 

The  material  used  was,  as  a  rule,  leather,  but 
occasionally  felt.  They  were  mostly  black ;  but  we  also 
find  coloured  shoes  mentioned,  especially  for  women, 
and  sometimes  see  them  represented  on  polychrome 
vases. 

Stockings  were  unknown  to  antiquity,  but  some- 
times in  extreme  cold  it  was  the  custom  to  wrap 
fur  or  felt  round  the  legs.  Thus,  in  Homer,  old 
Laertes,  when  doing  rough  work  in  his  garden  wears 
gaiters  of  neat's  leather,  and  also  gloves  to  protect 
himself  against  the  thorns.  As  a  rule,  the  latter  were 


56 


GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 


also  unknown;  only  actors  wore  something  of  the 
kind,  but  their  object  was,  by  apparent  lengthening 
of  the  arms,  to  harmonise  them  with  the  artificial 
increase  in  height. 

As  a  rule,  men  went  bare-headed,  or  wore  caps  in 
bad  weather.  Generally  speaking,  they  distinguished, 
as  we  do,  between  hats  and  caps.  The  hat,  whose 
distinguishing  mark  was  the  brim,  bore  the  name 


FIG.  35. 

petasos.  It  originated  in  Thessaly,  but  spread  to 
other  places,  and  at  Athens  was  regarded  as  the 
characteristic  riding  hat,  and  as  such  was  worn  with 
the  chlamys  by  youths.  We  see  many  in  this  dress 
on  the  Parthenon  frieze.  Otherwise  the  petasos  was 
essentially  a  part  of  travelling  dress,  and,  therefore,  a 
usual  attribute  of  Hermes  as  messenger  of  the  gods. 
When  older  men  wore  the  petasos  there  was  generally 
some  distinct  reason  for  it.  (Compare  Figs.  9  and 
10.)  The  shapes  of  the  petasos  on  works  of  art  are  so 
various  that  it  is  sometimes  difficult  to  tell  whether 
they  ought  all  to  be  included  under  the  same  name. 


COSTUME. 


57 


Some  of  the  hats  are  so  very  like  caps  that  we 
can  scarcely  decide  whether  they  ought  to  bear  the 
name  of  petasos.  In  the  oldest  period  the  petasos 
almost  always  had  a  pointed,  rather  high  crown,  and  a 
broad  brim  turned  up  in  front  and  behind.  (Compare 


36. 


the  examples  in  Fig.  35.)  Afterwards  varieties 
were  introduced;  sometimes  the  crown  was  semi- 
circular, sometimes  flattened,  now  high,  now  low,  or 
with  a  little  point  like  a  button  ;  the  brim,  too,  was 
sometimes  broad,  shading  the  whole  face,  sometimes 
quite  narrow;  now  turned  down,  now  horizontal;  at 
other  times,  again,  turned  up  or  bent  round  the  head. 
Thus  in  the  first  half  of  the  fifth  century,  we  find 
a  very  peculiar  shape.  The  brim  projects  in  front  in 


58  GREEK  LIFE   AT   HOME. 

a  narrow  point,  and  at  the  back  is  turned  up  as  far 
as  the  high  conical  crown.  (Compare  Fig.  35.)  The 
commonest  shape  is  that  of  which  examples  are  given 
in  Fig.  36  ;  the  crown  is  tolerably  flat,  gener- 
ally not  higher  than  the  skull ;  the  brim,  which  is 
rather  broad,  and  generally  turned  down,  is  not 
circular  all  round,  but  cut  out  at  several  places — either 
between  the  ears  and  the  forehead,  so  that  a  point 
falls  over  the  latter,  while  the  brim  extends  in  semi- 


Fio.  37. 

circular  form  round  the  back  of  the  head;  or  else 
this  half  is  cut  out  in  the  same  way  as  the  front  part, 
so  that  the  brim  ends  in  four  points,  which  generally 
fall  over  the  forehead,  back  of  the  head,  and  ears. 
Still,  we  sometimes  find  instances  where  it  is  only  cut 
out  over  the  forehead,  and  the  points  fall  to  the  right 
and  left  of  the  face.  This  shape  is  very  common  in 
the  best  period,  that  is,  in  the  fifth  and  fourth 
centuries.  Afterwards,  there  were  some  very  strange 
shapes,  such  as  that  hi  Fig.  37,  on  the  left, 
which  is  found  on  vase  pictures  of  the  best  period 
and  reminds  us  of  the  hats  pointed  in  front  and 
behind  worn  early  in  the  nineteenth  century.  The 
petasos  was  fastened  under  the  chin  with  a  cord  ; 


COSTUME. 


59 


when  it  was  not  wanted  it  was  pushed  down  below  the 
neck,  where  it  was  kept  in  place  by  the  cord ;  and  we 
find  it  frequently  in  this  position.  (Compare  Fig.  38.) 
When,  as  sometimes  happens,  the  petasos  has  a  high 
crown,  and  a  narrow 
turned-up  brim,  it  is 
often  very  like  the 
pilos,  a  cap  of  leather 
or  felt,  which  was  the 
common  dress  of  work- 
men, especially  smiths, 
countrymen,  fishermen, 
sailors,  etc.  Odysseus, 
as  sailor,  is  almost 
always  represented  with 
it;  and  so  is  Charon,  the 
ferryman  of  the  nether 
world,  Hephaestus,  as 
smith,  etc.  Invalids 
who  were  obliged  to 
protect  their  heads 
from  the  weather,  also 
wore  such  caps.  These 
caps,  too,  were  of 
various  shapes ;  semi- 
circular, fitting  closely 

to  the  head,  and  half-oval,  projecting  somewhat  be- 
yond the  head,  or  of  a  more  pointed  conical  shape. 
(Compare  that  of  Odysseus,  Fig.  39,  and  the  sailors, 
Fig.  40,  where,  as  is  often  the  case,  it  has  a  narrow, 
lower  brim.)  It  is  evident  from  the  drawing  that  the 
material  must  have  been  skin,  which  was  the  commonest 
next  to  felt.  These  caps  were  often  fastened  with 
strings  below  the  chin,  and  there  was  sometimes  a 
bow  at  the  apex  by  which  they  could  be  hung  up. 


FIG.  38. 


60  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

Women,  who  were  seen  out  of  doors  much  sel- 
dom er  than  men,  had  even  less  need  for  head- 
coverings.  Especially  in  the  oldest  period,  where 


FIG.  39. 


scarves  covering  the  greater  part  of  the  hair  were 
in  fashion,  they  probably  contented  themselves  with 
drawing  the  himation  over  their  heads  when  they 
went  out.  (Compare  Fig.  4.)  This  was  often  done 


COSTUME. 


61 


in  later  periods  also,  as  we  see  in  terra-cotta  figures 
(compare  Figs.  27  and  28)  ;  but  even  at  that  time 
women  in  the  country;  or  travelling,  often  wore  a 
petasos  similar  to  that  of  the  men,  though  with  a 
narrower  brim.  A  graceful  Sicilian  terra-cotta,  repre- 
sented in  Fig.  41,  shows  a  lady  wearing  one  of  these, 
and  it  is  very  becoming  to  the  face.  On  the  other 
hand,  after  the  Alexandrine  period,  the  tholia  is  very 


FIG.  40. 


common.  This  is  a  light  straw  hat,  with  a  pointed 
crown  and  broad  brim,  fastened  by  a  ribbon  and  bal- 
anced on  the  head — no  doubt  very  convenient,  since 
the  broad  brim  protected  the  wearer  from  the  rays 
of  the  sun,  but  by  no  means  becoming.  Terra-cotta 
figures  from  Tanagra  give  numerous  examples  of  this 
hat,  which  was  evidently  very  common  at  the  time, 
and  is  also  mentioned  by  writers. 

For  further  protection  against  the  sun  women 
often  used  sunshades,  which  were  made  to  fold  up 
like  ours.  Such  sunshades  are  common  on  old 


GREEK  LIFE   AT   HOME. 


FIG.  41. 


monuments,  but,  as  a  rule,  ladies  did  not  carry  them 
themselves,  but  were  accompanied  by  a  slave,  who 
performed  this  office  for  them.  The  sunshades  were 


COSTUME. 


63 


usually  round  (compare  Fig.  42),  but  there  are  also 
examples  of  a  fan- shaped  kind,  which  enabled  the  ser- 
vant who  walked  behind  to  hold  the  sunshade  by  its 


.  42. 


long  handle  comfortably  over  her  mistress  without 
going  too  near  her.  Sometimes  we  even  see  men  on 
vase  pictures  with  sunshades.  This,  however,  was  re- 
garded as  effeminate  luxury.  The  stick  belonged  to 
the  ordinary  equipment  of  a  man.  Old  people  walked 


64  GREEK  LIFE   AT  HOME. 

with  the  help  of  a  heavy  knotted  stick,  or  leant 
on  it  as  they  stood,  like  the  Athenian  citizens  on  the 
Parthenon  frieze ;  and  young  people  also  used  them. 
They  seem  always  to  have  used  natural  sticks ;  but 
the  Laconian  canes,  with  curved  handles,  were  con- 
sidered specially  convenient,  and  were  used  at  Athens 
by  those  who  liked  to  imitate  Spartan  manners  and 
customs.  In  the  fourth  century  the  use  of  sticks 
seems  to  have  become  less  common. 

The  last  heading  to  be  considered  is  the  fashion  of 
wearing  the  hair ;  and,  although  the  writers  and 
statues  give  us  considerable  information,  there  are 
several  difficulties  here  which  have  not  yet  been 
solved. 

In  the  heroic  period  long  curly  hair  was  regarded 
as  a  suitable  ornament  for  a  man.  This  is  proved  by 
the  favourite  epithet,  "  The  curly-haired  Achaeans," 
and  by  other  quotations  from  epic  poetry ;  various 
indications  prove  that  the  curls  were  not  always  left 
to  fall  naturally,  but  that  artificial  means  were  some- 
times adopted  for  facilitating  and  preserving  their 
regular  arrangement.  When  the  "  effeminate  Paris  "  is 
said  to  rejoice  in  his  "  horn"  (fcepa  ayA-ae),  old  commen- 
tators state  that  this  horn  was  a  twisted  plait.  It  is 
possible  that  this  might  be  produced  by  the  mere  use 
of  stiffening  pomades  or  other  cosmetic  means,  which 
had  been  introduced  from  the  East  in  the  Homeric 
period;  but  the  statements  in  the  Iliad  about  the  gold 
and  silver  "  curl-holders "  of  the  Trojan  Euphorbus 
clearly  point  to  artificial  aids.  The  oldest  sculp- 
tures and  vase  pictures  give  sufficient  proof  that  this 
mode  of  wearing  the  hair  in  regular  curls  con- 
tinued for  a  long  time,  for  they  almost  always 
represent  hair  falling  far  down  the  neck,  generally  in 


COSTUME.  65 

regular  stiff  locks  with  horizontal  waving,  while  small 
curls  surround  the  forehead,  arranged  with  equal 
accuracy.  As  to  the  means  employed  for  producing 
these  curls,  Helbig's  opinion  is  that  the  spirals  of 
bronze,  silver,  or  gold  wire  found  in  old  graves  in 
several  parts  of  the  Old  World  were  used  as  a  founda- 
tion for  the  curls,  which  were  twined  around  them. 
Certainly  these  spirals  have  often  been  found  in 
Etruscan  graves,  near  the  spot  where  the  head  rested, 
and  generally  one  on  each  side.  This  might,  however, 
be  explained  by  the  other  interpretation  that  they 
were  a  kind  of  primitive  ear-ring.  Perhaps  the  "  gold 
and  silver  "  with  which  Euphorbus  "  bound  together  " 
his  locks,  according  to  Homer,  was  not  a  particular 
kind  of  adornment,  but  only  flexible  go  Id  and  silverwire. 
The  monuments  as  well  as  the  writers  teach  us 
that  men  wore  their  hair  long,  in  the  next  period  also, 
down  to  the  fifth  century ;  we  sometimes  find  hair  of 
such  length  and  thickness  depicted  that  it  seems 
almost  incredible  that  a  man's  hair  could  have  been 
so  much  developed,  even  by  the  most  careful  treat- 
ment. However,  it  did  not  often  hang  quite  loose, 
but  it  was  tied  back  somewhere  near  the  neck  by 
a  ribbon,  and,  unlike  the  Homeric  head-dress,  where 
each  curl  is  separately  fastened,  the  whole  mass 
of  hair  was  bound  together,  and  then  spread  out 
again  below  the  fastening,  and  fell  down  the 
back.  Sometimes  the  hair,  after  being  tightly  tied 
together  in  one  place,  was  interwoven  with  cords  or 
ribbons  lower  down,  so  that  it  fell  in  a  broader  mass 
than  where  it  was  tied  together,  but  by  no  means 
hung  loose.  Another  kind  of  head-dress  is  that  in 
which  the  hair  is  tied  together  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
resemble  a  broad  and  thickish  band,  something  like 
our  head-dress  of  the  last  century.  The  hair  falls  a, 

D 


66  GREEK    LIFE    AT   HOME. 

little  way  below  the  neck,  and  is  then  taken  up  again 
and  tied  in  with  the  other  piece  by  a  ribbon  in  such  a 
manner  that  the  end  of  the  hair  falls  down  over  this 
ribbon.  Here,  too,  we  find  variety,  for  the  hair 
sometimes  fell  some  way  down  the  back,  sometimes 
was  fastened  up  again  at  the  back  of  the  head.  An 
example  of  the  former  kind  is  the  bronze  head  from 
Olympia  represented  in  Fig.  44  ;  of  the  latter,  Fig.  43, 
from  a  vase  painting  of  the  fifth  century. 


FIG.  43.  Fio.  44. 


Most  commonly,  however,  in  the  sixth  and  fifth 
centuries  men  plaited  their  long  hair  and  laid  the 
plaits  round  their  head.  There  were  two  distinct 
modes  of  doing  this.  One  was  to  take  two  plaits  from 
the  back  of  the  head  in  different  directions  and  fasten 
them  like  bandages  round  the  head ;  the  other  was  to 
begin  the  plaits  at  the  ears,  turn  them  backwards  so 
that  they  crossed  each  other  at  the  back  of  the  head, 
then  bring  them  round  to  the  front  and  knot  them 
together  over  the  centre  of  the  forehead.  This  is  the 
head-dress  of  the  figure  on  the  Omphalos  known  as 
Apollo  (Fig.  45),  and  the  head  of  a  youth  (Fig.  46). 
There  are  also  many  other  differences  in  detail ;  some- 


COSTUME. 


67 


times  the  two  plaits  were  laid  across  the  hair  from 
the  parting  to  the  forehead  in  the  form  of  a  fillet 
holding  the  hair  fast,  as  in  the  marble  head  (Fig.  47) ; 
but  sometimes  the  front  hair  is  laid  across  the  ends 
of  the  plait  fastened  together  in  front,  as  in  the  head 
from  a  vaso  painting  represented  in  Fig.  48.  The 
head  in  Fig.  47  also  shows  a  peculiar  mode  of  treating 


FIG.  46. 


FIG.  46. 


the  back  hair.  The  lower  part  of  this  is  plaited,  and 
the  plait  turned  up  again  and  fastened  where  the 
other  two  braids  cross  each  other.  Other  plaits 
also  fall  from  behind  the  ears  in  regular  arrange- 
ment over  the  shoulders  in  front,  often  reaching 
as  far  as  the  breast.  The  hair  on  the  fore- 
head is  dressed  with  equal  care.  With  this  fashion 
also  the  regular  little  curls,  arranged  in  one  or  more 
rows  round  the  forehead,  are  very  common.  Some- 
times they  are  in  spiral  form,  sometimes  in  that 


68 


GREEK   LIFE    AT   HOME. 


of  "corkscrew"  curls,  as  on  the  archaic  bronze 
head  from  Pompeii  represented  in  Fig.  49  and 
in  Fig.  48. 

These  are  the  principal  archaic  modes  of  wearing 
the  hair  found  on  the  monuments,  but  they  by  no 
means  exhaust  the  varieties  which  might  be  observed. 
The  writers,  however,  only  mention  one  ancient  head- 
dress. Thucydides,  in  the  passage  already  quoted, 
which  describes  the  long  chitons  formerly  worn  by  the 


FIG.  47. 

Athenians,  also  tells  us  that  at  the  same  time  that  this 
old-fashioned  dress  was  abandoned,  the  Athenians  gave 
up  the  old  way  of  dressing  their  hair  in  the  crobylus 
(KpwftvKosi),  into  which  they  fastened  golden  grass- 
hoppers. It  has  not  yet,  however,  been  possible  to 
determine  with  any  certainty  which  of  the  head- 
dresses found  on  the  statues  corresponded  to  this  cro- 
bylus, which  seems  to  be  identical  with  the  cwymbus 
(icopvfMpos)  mentioned  in  other  places ;  nor  has  it 
been  possible  to  find  any  traces  of  the  grasshoppers. 
Consequently  almost  all  the  head-dresses  above  de- 
scribed have  been  claimed  for  the  crobylus,  even  the 
double  plaits  behind  the  ears ;  and  the  grasshoppers 


COSTUME.  69 

have  been  explained  sometimes  as  the  above-men- 
tioned spirals,  sometimes  as  hair-pins  or  fibulae. 
Perhaps  some  day  a  fortunate  discovery  may  throw 
light  on  this  difficult  question. 

It  would  be  scarcely  possible  to  assign  a  chrono- 
logical order  to  all  these  various  archaic  head-dresses. 
However,  in  the  latter  half  of  the  fifth  century  they 
all  disappear,  and  here  we  have  another  proof  of  the 
increasing  aesthetic  sense 
noticeable  in  all  domains 
of  life  in  the  classic  period. 
The  allusions  in  Aristo- 
phanes show  that  \n  his 
time  it  was  only  old-fash- 
ioned people,  who  probably 
also  went  about  in  long 
chitons,  that  still  wore  the 
grasshoppers.  From  the 
time  of  Pheidias,  the  elabor- 
ate head-dresses  entirely 
vanish;  and  though  they 
are  continued  for  a  longer 

period  on  the  vase  paintings,  that  is  probably  because 
painting  adhered  longer  than  sculpture  to  the  old 
forms  and  fashions,  since  its  free  development  in  style 
was  also  of  later  growth.  After  this  time  the  long, 
flowing  hair  of  the  men  and  the  pigtail  disappear; 
and  though  only  youths  and  athletes  wore  their  hair 
quite  short,  yet  the  men's  hair  was  also  shortened, 
and  owed  its  chief  beauty  to  nature,  which  has 
granted  the  gift  of  graceful  curl  to  Southern  and 
Oriental  nations.  The  portrait  heads  of  this  and 
the  following  period  depict  the  hair  as  simply  curled, 
soft,  and  not  too  abundant.  This  seems  to  have  con- 
tinued during  the  following  centuries ;  at  any  rate, 


FIG.  48. 


FJO.  49. 


COSTUME.  71 

the  monuments  show  no  trace  of  a  return  to  the 
artificial  head-dresses  fashionable  in  ancient  times. 
Just  as  wigs,  powder,  and  pigtails  have  disappeared 
for  ever  among  us,  so  antiquity,  when  it  had  once 
recognised  the  beauty  of  hair  in  its  natural  growth, 
never  returned  to  the  stiff  and  laborious  head-dress  of 
the  past.  Of  course,  there  were  various  fashions  in 
the  mode  of  wearing  the  hair  and  having  it  cut;  hi 
fact,  there  are  a  number  of  different  names  for 
the  modes  of  cutting  it,  such  as  the  "garden,"  the 
'boat,"  but  we  do  not  know  what  these  were  like, 
since  the  monuments .  afford  no  clue.  Probably  it 
was  only  dandies  who  laid  any  stress  on  such  matters. 
It  is  but  natural  that  there  should  have  been  many 
local  variations  in  the  mode  of  wearing  the  hair,  as  in 
the  dress,  and  probably  these  were  of  some  import- 
ance in  the  oldest  period;  but  we  know  very  litt> 
about  them.  At  Sparta  it  was  the  custom  at 
the  time  of  the  Peloponnesian  War  to  shave  the 
hair  quite  close  to  the  head,  but  as  the  Spartans 
wore  long,  carefully-curled  hair  at  the  time  of  the 
Persian  wars,  a  change  hi  the  fashion  must  have  taken 
place  at  Sparta  in  the  course  of  the  fifth  century. 

No  special  ornaments  were  worn  in  the  hair  by 
men  after  they  gave  Up  the  old-fashioned  curl-holders 
and  the  mysterious  grasshoppers.  The  "band"  or 
fillet  laid  round  the  forehead,  which  Dionysus  com- 
monly wears  in  works  of  art,  was  only  actually  used 
as  the  reward  of  victory  in  gymnastic  or  other 
contests.  The  diadem  is  a  token  of  royal  dignity,  and, 
therefore,  unknown  hi  free  Greece. 

The  change  of  fashion  in  the  mode  of  wearing 
the  beard  can  also  be  traced  in  Greek  antiquity. 
There  is  no  direct  account  of  it  in  the  Homeric 
poems,  but  probably  some  indirect  hints.  A  well 


72  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

known  simile  in  Homer  mentions  the  razor.  As 
the  Achaeans  wore  their  hair  long,  and  certainly 
were  not  smooth  shaven,  the  question  arises,  what  use 
they  could  have  made  of  the  razor.  Helbig  points  to 
the  analogy  of  the  Egyptian  and  Phoenician  custom, 
which  had  considerable  influence  on  Hellenic  culture, 
and  also  shows,  by  means  of  old  Greek  monuments, 
that  very  probably  the  lonians  of  the  Homeric  period 
shaved  the  upper  lip ;  as,  hi  fact,  the  Dorians  also  did 
in  older  times.  It  is  true  this  period  must  have  been 
preceded  by  an  older  one  unacquainted  with  this 
custom,  for  the  gold  masks  found  in  graves  at 
Mycenae  wear  a  moustache ;  and  the  best  example  of 
these  is  treated  in  such  a  way  as  to  point  to  the  use  of 
some  stiffening  pomade,  as  well  as  the  artificial 
cutting  of  the  moustache. 

The  monuments  also  show  us  that  the  custom  of 
shaving  the  upper  lip  continued  for  some  time  in  the 
following  centuries ;  but  it  was  not  the  only  prevailing 
one,  for  we  also  find  whiskers,  beard,  and  moustache. 
It  is  but  natural  that  hi  the  period  when  the  hair  was 
elaborately  dressed,  special  care  was  taken  also  with 
the  treatment  of  the  beard.  It  was  not  only 
regularly  cut,  and  usually  in  a  point  (compare  Fig. 
50),  but  it  was  also  cut  short  at  certain  places, 
especially  between  the  lower  lip  and  the  chin,  so  that 
the  part  thus  treated  presented  a  different  appearance 
from  the  rest  of  the  beard.  They  also  curled  the 
moustache,  and  arched  it  upwards;  and  if  we  may 
believe  the  testimony  of  archaic  monuments,  we 
must  assume  that  curling-irons  were  sometimes  used 
for  the  artificial  arrangement  of  the  beard.  It  was 
not  till  the  latter  half  of  the  fifth  century  that 
the  beard  was  allowed  to  fall  naturally  and  simply,  at 
the  time  when  they  began  to  treat  the  hair  hi  a 


COSTUME. 


73 


similar  manner.  The  beard,  although  not  entirely 
abandoned  to  its  natural  growth,  since  it  was  cut  into 
a  shape  corresponding  to  the  oval  of  the  face,  instead 
of  the  former  point,  at  any  rate  was  no  longer  treated 
by  artificial  means,  such  as  pomades,  elaborate  curl- 
ing, etc.  The  portrait  type  of  Pericles  or  Sophocles 
(compare  Fig.  7)  shows  us  the  finest  example  of 


FIG.  50. 

a  simple  and  dignified  mode  of  wearing  the  beard, 
while  the  ideal  head  of  Zeus  from  Otricoli,  with  its 
artificially  parted  beard,  in  spite  of  the  grandeur  of 
the  treatment,  is  far  removed  from  the  classic  sim- 
plicity of  the  age  of  Pheidias.  After  Alexander  the 
Great  and  his  successors  it  became  the  custom  to 
shave  the  whole  face.  The  portrait  statues  show  us 
that  old  men  especially,  who  had  formerly  allowed 
their  beard  to  grow,  now  almost  always  shaved  it  off. 
Aristotle,  Menander,  Poseidippus,  the  princes  of  the 
Alexandrine  age,  etc.,  have  smooth-shaven  faces. 


74 


GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 


Souths  and  middle-aged  men  at  that  period  some- 
times let  their  beard  grow,  but  old  men  only  did  so 
when  they  wished  to  indicate,  by  a  long,  ragged 
beard,  that  they  were  followers  of  the  Cynic  school ; 
for  even  down  to  the  time  of  the  Empire  the  long 
beard  was  the  distinguishing  mark  of  the  philosopher. 
The  head-dress  of  women  also  underwent  many 


FIG.  61. 


Fio.  52. 


changes.  We  do  not  know  how  their  hair  was  bound 
up  and  arranged  in  the  Homeric  period,  when  it  was 
treated  with  sweet-scented  oils  and  pomades,  which 
were,  in  fact,  very  common  during  the  heroic  period. 
Mention  is  especially  made  of  a  cap-like  arrangement 
of  the  hair,  and  a  plaited  braid  connected  with  it. 
Helbig  believes  he  has  recognised  the  same  fashion 
in  the  women's  head-dress  on  old  Etruscan  pictures, 
on  which  it  is  possible  to  distinguish  a  high-pointed 
cap  and  a  band  laid  over  it.  However  this  may  be, 
Andromache's  head-dress,  as  described  by  Homer,  has 


COSTUME.  75 

a  distinctly  Oriental  character.  In  the  next  period 
the  works  of  art  are  again  our  best  guide.  They  show 
us  that,  apart  from  external  ornament,  the  head-dress 
of  men  and  women  in  ancient  times  was  essentially 
similar.  We  find  the  long  hair  either  falling  freely 
or  in  single  plaits  down  the  back  (compare  Figs.  11 
and  following)  ;  curls  falling  on  the  shoulders ;  and 
little  ringlets  surrounding  the  forehead ;  we  find  the 
hair  tied  up  at  the  back  of  the  neck,  or  the  mode 


FIG.  63.  FIG.  54. 

described  above  of  tying  it  up  in  band-like  fashion 
in  several  places.  (Compare  also  the  peculiar  hair- 
knot  in  Fig.  11.)  We  also  find  that  arrangement  of 
double  plaits  laid  several  times  round  the  back  of 
the  head,  which  has  been  claimed  as  the  crobylus, 
although  this  is  only  mentioned  as  a  male  head-dress. 
This  last  fashion  is  even  found  in  the  graceful  Carya- 
tides of  the  Erechtheum,  but  here  it  is  probably  a 
reminiscence  of  the  old  custom,  natural  hi  these 
female  figures,  which  are,  as  it  were,  in  the  service 
of  the  goddess.  Otherwise  none  of  these  fashions 
continue  beyond  the  last  quarter  of  the  fifth  century, 
either  for  women  or  men. 

About  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century  the  fashion 


76  GREEK   LIFE  AT   HOME. 

of  wearing  many-coloured  kerchiefs,  covering  the 
greater  part  of  the  hair,  must  have  been  very  preva- 
lent. Polygnotus  paints  his  women  thus,  and  we  find 
the  same  fashion  in  the  pediments  of  Olyrnpia,  and 
on  some  of  the  female  figures  on  the  Eastern 
Parthenon  frieze,  and  on  numerous  vase  paintings  of 
that  period.  (Compare  Fig.  17,  where  the  kerchief 
even  seems  to  develop  into  a  cap,  with  a  bow  at  the 
apex.)  But  at  the  same  period,  when  the  men  began 


FIG.  55. 


FIG.  56. 


to  emancipate  themselves  from  the  stiff  head-dresses, 
and  to  wear  their  hair  in  a  natural  manner,  a  simple 
and  beautiful  fashion  also  became  commoner  among 
the  women.  The  hair  was  usually  parted  in  the  middle 
and  either  fell  in  slight  ripples  loosely  down  the  back 
or  else  was  drawn  up  into  a  knot  at  the  back  of  the 
head.  (Compare  Figs.  20  and  24.)  The  latter 
fashion,  which  we  still  call  the  "  Greek  knot,"  is  the 
commonest  and  most  beautiful  in  the  next  period  too. 
Sometimes  the  knot  fell  far  down  the  neck  (compare 
Figs.  51  and  52),  which  was  certainly  the  most  grace- 
ful, or  else  it  was  higher  up  the  head  (compare  Fig. 
53),  where  the  hair  is  combed  upwards  from  the  face, 
or  else  (compare  Fig.  54)  the  knot  developed  into 


COSTUME.  77 

a  flattened  nest  or  wreath.  A  simple  ornament  fre- 
quently found  is  a  narrow  band  or  fillet  entwined 
with  the  hair  or  laid  around  the  hair  and  forehead. 
(Compare  Figs.  16,  20,  24,  and  52.)  Kerchiefs  were 
also  much  worn  afterwards,  sometimes  put  on  in  such 
a  way  as  to  cover  almost  the  whole  hair  (compare 
-Figs.  55  and  56),  sometimes  only  a  part,  so  that  the 
hair  at  the  back  of  the  head  is  visible  beneath  it. 
(Compare  Fig.  25.)  There  were  also  a  variety  of 
metal  ornaments,  which  were  fastened  into  the  hair 
either  to  keep  it  firm  or  else  for  decorative  purposes 
— golden  circlets  or  diadems  (compare  Fig.  57),  pins, 
etc.  Detailed  consideration  of  these  ornaments  show 
us  that  the  age  of  Pericles  and  that  immediately 
following  it,  were  the  periods  when  the  style  and 
technique  attained  their  highest  development  and 
artistic  beauty.  Thus  dress,  hair,  and  ornament  all 
combined  harmoniously  to  represent  the  people  of 
that  age  in  surroundings  corresponding  in  the  fullest 
degree  to  the  poetic  and  artistic  attainments  of  the 
epoch. 


FIG.  67. 


CHAPTER  It 

BIRTH      AND      INFANCY. 

An  Athenian  Home— The  Birth  of  a  Child— Its  Dedication— Its  First 
Years — Learning  to  Walk— Toys — Amusements. 

WE  must  now  transport  ourselves  in  imagination  to 
the  house  of  an  Athenian  citizen  of  the  better  classes. 
He  is  a  rich  man,  who  not  only  owns  a  comfortable, 
though  simple,  town  house  and  land  outside  the  gate 
managed  by  slaves,  but  also  draws  considerable 
interest  from  capital  invested  in  trading  vessels,  and 
from  the  numerous  slaves  who  work  in  factories  for 
wages.  But,  in  spite  of  his  comfortable  circumstances, 
his  joy  has  hitherto  been  troubled  by  one  sorrow — 
he  has  been  married  for  several  years,  and  as  yet  no 
heir  to  his  possessions  has  been  given  him.  A  little 
daughter  is  growing  up  in  the  house  to  the  joy  of  her 
parents,  but  even  this  cannot  console  the  father  for 
the  sad  prospect  of  seeing  the  possessions  inherited 
from  his  ancestors,  and  increased  by  his  own  industry 
and  economy,  pass  into  the  hands  of  strangers. 

But  to-day  joy  and  gladness  have  entered  this 
man's  house.  His  wife  has  borne  him  the  much- 
longed-for  son  and  heir.  The  neighbours,  who  had 
seen  the  well-known  nurse  enter  the  house,  were 
anxious  to  see  in  what  manner  the  front  door  would 
be  decked — whether,  as  before,  woollen  fillets  would 
announce  the  birth  of  a  daughter,  or  the  joyous  wreath 
of  olive  branches  proclaim  the  advent  of  a  son  and 
heir.  While  the  slaves  are  festively  decking  the  door 


BIRTH  AND  INFANCY.  79 

outside,  within  the  house  the  new-born  child  is  re- 
ceiving its  first  care.    With  a  happy  smile  the  young 


FIG.  58. 


mother  looks  on  from  her  couch  while  the  nurse  and 
maids  are  busily  occupied  in  preparing  the  bath  for 


80  GREEK  LIFE   AT   HOME. 

the  little  one.  For  this  only  tepid  water  and  fine  oil 
are  used,  for  the  Spartan  custom  of  adding  wine  to 
the  baby's  first  bath  is  unknown  at  Athens.  After 
the  bath,  too,  the  baby  has  a  warmer  bed  than  would 
have  fallen  to  his  lot  in  the  sterner  city.  True,  the 
father  intends,  as  soon  as  possible,  to  send  to  Sparta 
for  one  of  those  celebrated  nurses  known  and  prized 
for  their  success  in  rearing  children  ;  but  still  he 
shrinks  from  beginning  the  hardening  process  at  this 
tender  age,  and  rearing  up  the  child  according  to 
Spartan  customs  without  the  warm  swaddling  clothes. 
So  the  baby  is  carefully  wrapped  in  numerous  swad- 
dlings,  in  such  a  manner  that  even  the  arms  are  firmly 
swathed,  and  only  the  little  head  is  visible.  (Compare 
Fig.  58.)  The  ancient  physicians  prescribe  for  the 
new-born  child  soft  woollen  swaddling  three  fingers 
broad,  and  direct  that  the  swaddling  should  begin 
with  the  hands,  then  pass  on  to  the  chest,  and  at  last 
cover  the  feet,  swathing  each  part  separately  but 
loosely,  only  drawing  the  bandages  tight  at  the  knees 
and  the  soles  of  the  feet;  the  head  also  must  be 
enveloped,  and,  finally,  a  second  covering  is  put  over 
the  whole  body.  When  modern  physicians  maintain 
that  this  swaddling  must  injure  the  child  and  check 
the  development  of  its  organs,  they  forget  that  the 
Greeks  treated  their  children  thus  for  centuries  and 
yet  were  a  healthy  nation.  But  it  is  quite  incredible 
that  they  should  have  been  thus  swaddled  for  the 
first  two  years  of  their  life,  as  a  passage  in  Plato 
seems  to  indicate,  for  this  would  not  only  have  been 
extraordinary,  but  also  injurious  to  the  health.  It 
can  only  be  a  question  of  maintaining  a  covering 
suitable  to  the  age  for  these  two  years,  instead  of  the 
children's  dress  afterwards  worn.  A  physician  of  the 
age  of  the  Empire  recommends  the  end  of  the  fourth 


BIRTH   AND   INFANCY.  81 

month  as  the  time  for  gradually  leaving  off  the 
swaddling ;  and  probably  this  was  also  the  Greek 
custom.  Antiquity  does  not  seem  to  have  been 
acquainted  with  our  soft  cushions,  but  the  little 
Athenians  also  had  their  cradles,  though  these  did  not 
stand  on  the  ground  on  rockers  like  ours,  for  such 
cradles  are  not  mentioned  till  the  Roman  period,  and 
seem  to  have  been  unknown  in  the  classic  age;  but 
they  resembled  a  basket  of  woven  osier,  suspended 
from  ropes  like  a  hammock,  and  thus  made  to  rock. 
The  cradle  in  which  Hermes,  who  seems  already  to 
have  attained  the  age  of  boyhood,  is  depicted  on  a 
vase  painting  represented  in 
Fig.  59,  is  of  a  peculiar  shape, 
quite  like  that  of  a  shoe;  the 
handles  at  the  side,  through 
which  ropes  were  probably 
passed,  show  that  this  was  also  FIG.  59. 

made  to  rock     Fig.  60  shows  a 

different  kind  of  cradle.  It  is  a  bed  on  rockers, 
which  may  have  been  used  in  the  same  way  as  the 
babies'  cots  common  among 'us. 

The  young  mother  now  for  the  first  time  gives  the 
new-born  baby  the  breast  (compare  Fig.  61,  taken 
from  a  Greek  terra-cotta),  and  rejoices  that  she  is 
able  to  perform  this  duty  herself.  However,  in  case 
she  should  not  have  been  able  to  do  it,  a  poor  peasant 
woman  from  the  neighbourhood  had  been  brought  to 
the  house  and  paid  for  her  services.  Meantime,  the 
husband  sits  down  by  the  bed  and  discusses  with  his 
wife  the  steps  which  must  next  be  taken.  A  question 
that  sometimes  causes  a  good  deal  of  difficulty  pre- 
sents none  on  this  occasion — viz.,  the  legitimation  of 
the  child.  And  as  the  boy  is  strong  and  healthy, 
there  cannot  be  a  question  of  the  barbarous  custom 


82  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

of  exposing  it,  which,  though  rarely  resorted  to  at 
Athens,  was  still  quite  common  at  Sparta.  Even  had 
the  child  been  a  second  daughter,  the  kindly-disposed 
master  of  the  house  would  not  have  resorted  to  this 
cruel  step;  although,  had  he  done  so,  his  fellow- 


FlG. 


citizens  would  not  have  blamed  him  for  it  But  the 
parents  have  to  settle  on  which  day  the  family 
festival  shall  take  place,  to  welcome  and  dedicate  with 
religious  rites  the  newborn  child  (Amphidromia) 
and  what  name  they  shall  give  it  They  decide  upon 
the  tenth  day  after  the  birth  for  the  festival.  Many 
parents,  it  is  true,  celebrate  this  as  early  as  the  fifth 
day,  and  then  on  the  tenth  hold  a  second  festival, 


BIRTH   AND   INFANCY. 


83 


with  an  elaborate  banquet  and  sacrifices,  and  but  few 

rich  people  content  themselves  with  a  single  celebra- 

tion.    But  though  in   this   case  there  is  no  lack  of 

means,    yet,    as     the 

young  mother  wishes 

to   take  part   herself 

in  the  Amphidromia, 

they  decide  to  be  con- 

tent with  one  celebra- 

tion, which  is  to  take 

place     in    ten    days. 

According    to    old 

family     custom,     the 

boy  receives  the  name 

of  his  paternal  grand- 

father. 

When  the  ap- 
pointed day  has  come, 
and  the  house  is  fes- 
tively decked  with 
garlands,  messengers 
begin  to  arrive  early 
in  the  morning  from 
relations  and  friends, 
bringing  all  manner 
of  presents  for  the 
mother  and  child.  For 
the  former  they  bring 
many  dishes  which 
will  be  useful  at  the 

banquet  in  the  evening,  especially  fresh  fish,  polypi, 
and  cuttle-fish.  The  baby  receives  various  gifts, 
especially  amulets  to  protect  him  against  the  evil 
eye.  For,  according  to  widespread  superstition,  these 
innocent  little  creatures  are  specially  exposed  to 


FIG. 


84  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

the  influence  of  evil  magic.  Therefore  the  old 
slave,  to  whom  the  parents  have  confided  the  care  of 
the  child,  chooses  from  among  the  various  presents 
a  necklace  which  seems  to  her  especially  suitable  as 
an  antidote  to  magic,  on  which  are  hung  all  manner 
of  delicately- worked  charms  in  gold  and  silver  :  such 
as  a  crescent,  a  pair  of  hands,  a  little  sword,  a  little 
pig,  and  anything  else  which  popular  superstition 
may  include  in  the  ranks  of  amulets ;  and  hangs  this 
round  the  child's  neck 

The  festival  begins  with  a  sacrifice,  and  is  followed 
by  the  solemnity  in  which  mother  and  child,  who, 
according  to  ancient  notions,  are  regarded  as  unclean 
by  the  act  of  birth,  are  purified  or  cleansed,  along 
with  all  who  have  come  in  contact  with  the  mother. 
This  part  of  the  ceremony  is  the  real  "  Amphidromia  " 
(literally  "  running  round ").  The  nurse  takes  the 
child  on  her  arm,  and,  followed  by  the  mother  and  all 
who  have  come  in  contact  with  her,  runs  several  times 
round  the  family  hearth,  which,  according  to  ancient 
tradition,  represents  the  sacred  centre  of  the  dwelling. 
Probably  this  was  accompanied  by  sprinkling  with 
holy  water.  At  the  banquet  the  relations  and  friends 
of  the  family  appear  in  great  numbers.  In  their 
presence  the  father  announces  the  name  which  he 
has  chosen  for  the  child.  After  this  all  take  their 
places  at  the  banquet,  even  the  women,  who,  as  a 
rule,  do  not  take  part  in  the  meals  of  the  men.  The 
standing  dishes  on  this  occasion  are  toasted  cheese 
and  radishes  with  oil ;  but  there  is  no  lack  of  excellent 
meat  dishes  such  as  breast  of  lamb,  thrushes,  pigeons, 
and  other  dainties,  as  well  as  the  popular  cuttle-fish.  A 
good  deal  of  wine  is  drunk,  mixed  with  less  water  than 
is  generally  the  custom.  Music  and  dancing  accom- 
pany the  banquet,  which  extends  far  into  the  night 


BIRTH  AND  INFANCY.  85 

The  first  years  of  his  life  were  spent  by  the  little 
boy  in  the  nursery,  in  which  things  went  on  in  much 
the  same  way  as  with  us.  During  this  period  boys 
and  girls  alike  were  under  the  supervision  of  mother 
and  nurse.  If  the  baby  had  bad  nights  and  could 
not  sleep,  the  Athenian  mother  took  him  in  her  arms 
just  as  a  modern  one  would  do,  and  carried  him  up 
and  down  the  room,  rocking  him,  and  singing  some 
cradle  song  like  that  which  Alcmene  sings  to  her 
children  in  Theocritus  : — 

"  Sleep,  children  mine,  a  light  luxurious  sleep. 
Brother  with  brother  :  sleep,  my  boys,  my  life : 
Blest  in  your  slumber,  in  your  waking  blest."  * 

At  night  a  little  lamp  burnt  in  the  nursery.  Although, 
as  a  rule,  in  small  houses  the  apartments  for  the 
men  were  below  and  those  for  the  women  and  children 
in  the  upper  storeys,  yet  it  was  customary  for  the 
women  to  move  into  the  lower  rooms  for  a  time  after 
the  birth  of  a  child,  partly  in  order  that  they  might 
be  near  the  bath-room,  which  was  necessary  both  for 
mother  and  child.  During  the  first  years  of  their  life 
the  children  had  a  tepid  bath  every  day ;  later  on, 
every  three  or  four  days ;  many  mothers  even  went 
so  far  as  to  give  them  three  baths  a  day.  When  the 
child  had  to  be  weaned,  they  first  of  all  gave  it  broth 
sweetened  with  honey,  which,  in  olden  time,  took  the 
place  of  our  sugar,  and  then  gradually  more  solid 
food,  which  the  nurse  seems  to  have  chewed  for  the 
child  before  it  had  teeth  enough  to  do  this  itself. 
Aristophanes  gives  us  further  details  about  Greek 
nurseries,  and  even  quotes  the  sounds  first  uttered 
by  Athenian  children  to  make  known  their  various 
wants. 

•  Translated  by  S.  C.  Calverley. 


86 


GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 


They  do    not    seem    to    have    had    any    special 
mechanical  contrivances   for  learning   to  walk.     In 


FIG.  62. 


I.? 


1 


the  time  of  the  Empire  baskets  furnished  with  wheels 
are  mentioned.     Apparently  they  were  in  no  great 


filRTH  AND  INFANCY.  8? 

hurry  about  this.  For  the  first  year  or  two  the  nurses 
carried  the  children  out  into  the  fields,  or  took  them 
to  visit  their  relations,  or  brought  them  to  some 
temple;  then  they  let  them  crawl  merrily  on  the 
ground,  and  on  numerous  vase  pictures  we  see 
children  crawling  on  all  fours  to  some  table  covered 
with  eatables,  or  to  their  toys.  (Compare  the  Stele, 


FIG.  63. 

represented  in  Fig.  62,  on  which  a  child  has  crawled 
to  its  mother  and  is  trying  to  raise  itself.)  When  the 
child  made  its  first  attempt  at  walking,  prudent 
nurses  took  care  that  it  should  not  at  first  exert  its 
feeble  legs  too  much,  and  so  make  them  crooked ; 
though  Plato  probably  goes  too  far  when  he  desires  to 
extend  this  care  to  the  end  of  the  third  year,  and 
advises  nurses  to  carry  the  children  till  they  have 
reached  that  age. 

Children's  dress  must  have  given  but  little  trouble 
during  these  first  years.  At  home — at  any  rate  in 
summer — boys  either  ran  about  quite  naked  or  else 


88 


GREEK    LIFE    AT    HOME. 


with  only  a  short  jacket  open  in  front,  like  the  little 
boy  with  the  cart  in  Fig.  63.  The  girls,  however,  had 
long  dresses  reaching  to  their  feet,  fastened  by  two 
ribbons  crossing  each  other  in  front  and  behind. 
Naughty  children  were  brought  to  obedience  or  quiet 
by  threats  of  bogies,  but,  curiously  enough,  these  Greek 
bogies  were  all  female  creatures,  such  as  Medusae  or 


FIG.  64. 

witches:  "  Acco,"  "  Mormo,"  "Lamia,"  "  Empusa,"  etc.; 
and  when  the  children  would  not  stay  quiet  indoors, 
they  seem  to  have  threatened  them  with  "  The  horses 
will  bite  you."  The  mothers  and  nurses  used  to  tell  the 
children  all  sorts  of  legends  and  fairy  tales — Aesop's 
Fables  were  especially  popular — and  little  stories  from 
mythology  or  other  tales  of  adventure,  which  often 
began,  like  ours,  with  the  approved  "  Once  upon 
a  time."  Among  the  many  poetical  legends  of 
gods  and  heroes  there  were,  it  is  true,  some  which 
were  morally  or  aesthetically  objectionable,  and  the 


BIRTH   AND   INFANCY.  89 

philosophers  were  not  wrong  in  calling  attention  to 
the  danger  which  might  lie  in  this  intellectual  food, 
supplied  so  early  to  susceptible  childish  minds ;  yet 
this  was  undoubtedly  less  than  what  is  found  in  our 
own  children's  stories. 

Greek  children  had  toys  of  various  kinds,  though 
the  excessive  luxury  attained  in  these  at  the  pre- 
sent day  was  unknown  to  antiquity.  A  very  ancient 
toy  is  the  rattle,  usuaUy  a  metal  or  earthenware 


FIG.  65. 

jar  filled  with  little  stones,  sometimes  made  in 
human  form ;  and  there  were  other  noisy  toys, 
with  which  the  children  played  and  the  nurses 
strove  to  amuse  them;  though  complaints  were 
sometimes  made  that  foolish  nurses  by  these  means 
prevented  the  children  from  going  to  sleep.  A  very 
popular  toy,  found  in  many  pictures  in  children's 
hands,  was  a  little  two-wheeled  cart  (compare  Fig.  63), 
or  else  a  simple  solid  wheel,  without  spokes,  on.  a 
long  pole — a  cheap  toy  which  could  be  purchased 
for  an  obol  (about  three-halfpence).  Larger  carriages 
were  also  used  as  toys,  which  the  children  drew  them- 
selves, and  drove  about  their  brothers  and  sisters  or 


90 


GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 


companions,  as  we  see 
in  Fig.  64.  Sometimes 
tame  dogs  or  goats 
were  harnessed  to 
them,  and  the  boys 
rode  merrily  along, 
cracking  their  whips. 
(Compare  Fig.  65.)  The 
custom  of  letting  the 
nurses  draw  the  child- 
ren in  perambulators 
in  the  street  seems  to 
have  been  unknown, 
but  baby-carriages,  in 
which  the  children 
were  drawn  about  in 
the  room,  are  men- 
tioned by  the  ancient 
physicians.  (Compare 
Fig.  60.) 

The  little  girls 
liked  to  play  with  all 
kinds  of  earthenware 
vessels,  pots,  and 
dishes;  and,  like  our 
little  girls,  they  made 
their  first  attempts 
at  cooking  with  these. 
Many  such  are  found 
in  the  graves.  More 
popular  however,  even 
in  ancient  times,  were 
the  dolls,  made  of  wax 
or  clay  and  brightly 
coloured ;  sometimes 


BIRTH   AND   INFANCY 


91 


with  flexible  limbs,  like  the  one  in  Fig.  66,  or  with 
clothes  to  take  on  and  off,  and  representing  all  manner 


Fio.  67. 


of  gods,  heroes,  or  mortals;  dolls'  beds  were  also 
known.  Though  boys  may  have  sometimes  played 
with  these  figures,  or  even  made  them  for  themselves 
out  of  clay  or  wax,  yet  we  generally  find  them  in  the 


GREEK  LIFE   AT   HOME. 


FIG.  6s. 


hands  of  girls,  who  seem 
to  have  taken  pleasure  in 
them  even  after  the  first 
years  of  childhood  ;  in- 
deed, it  was  not  un- 
common, since  Greek 
girls  married  very  early, 
for  them  to  play  with 
their  dolls  up  to  the  time 
of  their  marriage,  and 
just  before  their  wedding 
to  take  these  discarded 
favourites,  with  their 
whole  wardrobe,  to  some 
temple  of  the  maiden 
Artemis,  and  there  dedi- 
cate them  as  a  pious 
offering. 

The  boys  delighted 
in  other  more  masculine 
pleasures.  Like  our  own 
boys,  they  played  with 
box- wood  tops  and  whips, 
singing  a  merry  song  the 
while,  or  else  they  bowled 
their  iron  hoops,  to  which 
bells  or  rings  were  at- 
tached. The  hoop  was  a 
favourite  toy  until  the 
age  of  youth,  and  we 
often  find  it  on  vase 
paintings  in  the  hands 
of  quite  big  boys.  (Cora- 
pare  Fig.  67.)  We  may 
certainly  assume  that 


BIRTH    AND   INFANCY. 


93 


they  also  had  little  imitations  of  warlike  implements 
Kuch  as  swords  and  shields ;  a  little  quiver,  which  can 
hardly  have  served  any  other  purpose  (compare  Fig. 
G8)  has  been  found.  Clever  boys  made  their  own  toys, 
und  cut  little  carts  and  ships  out  of  wood  or  leather,  and 


FIG.  69. 


carved  frogs  and  other  animals  out  of  pomegranate 
rinds.  Our  hobby-horse,  too,  was  known  to  the 
ancients,  as  is  proved  by  a  pretty  anecdote  told  of 
Agesilaus.  He  was  once  surprised  by  a  visitor 
playing  with  his  children,  and  riding  merrily  about 
on  a  hobby-horse.  It  is  said  that  he  begged  his 
friend  not  to  tell  of  the  position  in  which  he  had 
found  the  terrible  general,  until  he  should  himself 
have  children  of  his  own.  Kite -fly  ing  also  was  known 
to  them,  as  is  proved  by  the  vase  painting  represented 


94  GREEK    LIFE    AT    HOME. 

in  Fig.  69,  which,  though  rough  in  drawing,  distinctly 
shows  the  action. 

They  were  also  acquainted  with  the  little  wheels, 
turned  by  means  of  a  string  which  is  wound  and 


FIG.  70. 

unwound,  that  are  still  popular  among  the  children 
of  our  day,  and  about  a  hundred  years  ago  were 
fashionable  toys  known  as  "  incroyablcs."  What  we 
see  in  the  boy's  hand  in  Fig.  70  can  hardly  be  any- 
thing else.  This  was  a  game  in  which  even  grown-up 
people  seem  to  have  taken  pleasure.  On  the  vases  of 
Lower  Italy  we  often  see  in  the  hands  of  Eros,  or 
women,  a  little  wheel,  with  daintily  jagged  edge  and 
spokes,  fastened  to  a  long  string  in  such  a  way  that, 


BIBTH   AND   INFANCY.  95 

when  this  is  first  drawn  tight  by  both  hands  and  then 
let  go,  the  wheel  is  set  revolving.  (Compare  Fig.  71.) 
Probably  this 
was  not  a  mere 
toy  when  used 
by  grown  -  up 
people,  but 
rather  the  magic 
wheel  so  often 
mentioned  as 
playing  a  part 
in  love  charms ; 
but  about  this 
we  have  no  ex- 
act information. 
Swings  must 
also  be  men- 
tioned as  popular 
with  both  young 
and  old.  Those 
were  exactly  like 
ours :  either  the 
rope  itself  was 
used  as  a  seat 
and  held  fast 
with  both  hands, 
or  else  a  com- 
fortable seat  was 
suspended  from 
the  cords.  (Com- 
pare Fig.  72.)  This  was  a  merry  game,  in  which 
grown-up  women  sometimes  liked  to  take  part ; 
and  so  was  the  see-saw,  of  which  even  big  girls 
made  use.  (Compare  Fig.  73.)  Sometimes  the 
mother  or  older  sister  took  the  little  boy  by  the 


96 


GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 


arm  and  balanced  him  on  her  foot,  as  the  girl  in 
Fig.  74  does  with  Eros,  and,  as  hi  the  well-known 
beautiful  statue,  "  The  Little  Dionysus,"  is  carried 


Fio.   72. 


FIG.  73. 


on  the  shoulders  of  a  powerful  satyr.  Many  a 
Greek  father  probably  gave  his  son  a  ride  on  his 
shoulders. 

It  is  a  matter  of  course  that  the  young  people  of 
that  da^  were  acquainted  with  all  the  games  which 


BIRTH    AND    INFANCY.  97 

can  be  played  at  social  gatherings  by  children,  with- 
out any  extraneous  assistance.  The  various  games  ol 
running,  catching,  hiding,  blind-man's-buff,  etc.,  in 
which  our  young  people  still  take  pleasure,  were 
played  in  Greece  in  just  the  same  manner,  as  well  as 


FIG.  74. 


the  manifold   variety   of    games    with    balls,   beans, 
pebbles,  coins,  etc. 

Games  of  ball  served  as  recreation  for  youths  and 
men,  and  some  of  the  above-mentioned  games  of 
chance,  rather  than  skill,  were  especially  popular  with 
grown-up  people,  particularly  games  of  dice  or 
"knuckle-bones,"  to  which  we  shall  refer  later  on 
in  another  section. 


98  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

Thus  our  young  Athenian  spends  the  first  years  of 
his  life  amid  merry  play  with  his  companions,  under 
the  watchful  care  of  his  mother.  During  the  first  six 
years  the  nursery,  where  girls  and  boys  are  together, 
is  his  world,  though  he  is  sometimes  allowed  to  run 
about  in  the  street  with  boys  of  his  own  age.  He  is 
not  yet  troubled  with  lessons,  and  although,  should 
he  be  obstinate  or  naughty,  his  mother  will  sometimes 
chastise  him  with  her  sandal,  yet  in  a  family  in  which 
a  right  spirit  prevails,  the  character  of  the  education 
at  this  early  age  is  a  beneficent  mixture  of  severity 
and  gentleness.  Sometimes,  it  is  true,  the  father  does 
not  trouble  himself  at  all  about  the  education  of  his 
children,  and  leaves  this  entirely  to  his  wife,  who  may 
lack  the  necessary  intellectual  capacity,  or  even  to  a 
female  slave.  This,  of  course,  has  bad  results,  and 
the  same  happens  when  the  wife,  like  the  mother  of 
Pheidippides,  in  the  "  Clouds  "  of  Aristophanes,  is  too 
ambitious  for  her  little  son,  and,  in  constant  opposi- 
tion to  the  weak,  though  well-intentioned,  father, 
spoils  him  sadly.  Let  us  assume  that  the  boy  whose 
entrance  into  life  we  described  above,  is  free  from 
such  deleterious  influences,  and,  sound  in  mind  and 
body,  passes  in  his  seventh  year  out  of  his  mother's 
hands  into  those  which  will  now  minister  to  his 
intellectual  and  physical  development 


CHAPTER    III 

EDUCATION. 

Schools — At  Sparta — At  Athens — Methods  of  Instruction— Reading 
Lessons — Music — Geometry — The  Gymnasia — Physical  Training 
—The  Education  of  Girls. 

HERE,  as  in  so  many  other  domains  of  which  we  must 
treat,  there  is  a  marked  distinction  between  the  Doric 
and  Ionic  states.  In  the  latter  the  education  of  boys 
was  a  private  duty  of  the  parents,  and  the  State  only 
retained  a  general  right  of  control;  while  in  the 
Doric  states,  and  especially  at  Sparta,  with  whose 
institutions  we  are  best  acquainted,  boys  were  regarded 
as  belonging,  not  to  the  family,  but  to  the  State,  which 
undertook  the  entire  charge  of  their  physical  and 
intellectual  well-being. 

At  the  age  of  seven  years  the  Spartan  boy  left  his 
father's  house  to  live  with  companions  of  his  own  age, 
whose  occupation  and  mode  of  life  were  regulated  by 
definite  rules.  All  the  boys  were  divided  into  com- 
panies, according  to  age.  Several  of  these  companies 
were  again  combined  into  a  troop.  At  the  head  of 
each  company  and  of  each  troop  was  a  superintendent, 
chosen  from  among  the  youths.  His  duty  was  to 
direct  the  occupations  and  exercises  of  the  boys  und^r 
his  charge,  and,  as  leader  in  their  gymnastic  exercises, 
to  help  them  by  his  example.  The  general  care  of 
their  education  was  in  the  hands  of  the  trainers 
(•7rat86z/o/Aoi),  themselves  under  the  control  of  a  Board 
of  Inspection  (/3i,St,aioi),  but  in  other  respects  their 
power  was  unlimited,  and  they  had  the  right,  by 


100  GREEK   LIFE  AV   HOME. 


means  of  "  scourge-bearers  "  (^(myofopoi),  to  inflict 
punishment  for  disobedience  or  other  faults.  In  this 
office,  which  was  a  very  responsil  le  one  for  a  single  man, 
they  were  assisted  by  the  whole  body  of  citizens,  who 
were  not  only  permitted,  but  even  bound  by  their 
duty,  to  take  part  in  the  exercises  of  the  boys,  instruct- 
ing, encouraging,  or  even  punishing  them.  Every 
Spartan  citizen  could,  in  a  measure,  exercise  paternal 
rights  over  every  boy,  and,  again,  was  regarded  by 
every  boy  in  the  same  light  as  his  own  father.  Obedi- 
ence towards  their  elders,  modest  and  reverent  bearing, 
were  impressed  on  the  Spartan  boys  from  their  earliest 
years,  and  they  were  thus  advantageously  distinguished 
from  the  somewhat  precocious  Attic  youth.  The  aim 
of  their  whole  education  was  to  harden  the  body  and 
to  attain  the  greatest  possible  bodily  skill.  The  boys 
had  only  the  most  necessary  clothing  ;  from  their 
twelfth  year  onwards  they  wore  only  an  upper  gar- 
ment, even  in  winter,  and  in  all  other  respects  their 
life  was  of  the  simplest,  -«o  that  it  is  not  a  mere  figure 
of  speech  to  talk  of  Spartan  discipline.  They  received 
only  sufficient  food  for  the  barest  needs,  and,  though 
the  boys  were  often  taken  to  the  meals  of  the  grown 
men,  yet  these  too  were  anything  but  luxurious. 
Their  bed  was  hay  or  straw  ;  from  their  fifteenth  year 
onwards  reeds  or  rushes,  which  they  had  themselves 
to  fetch  from  the  Eurotas.  Indifference  to  physical 
pain  was  carried  to  an  excess  which  appears  to  us 
absolutely  barbarous,  even  in  later  times,  when  they 
had  departed  in  some  respects  from  the  original 
severity  of  the  so-called  laws  of  Lycurgus. 

The  instruction  at  Sparta  also  corresponded  to  these 
principles.  There  was  little  question  of  developing  the 
intellect,  nor  was  this  part  of  the  public  duty,  but  only 
a  private  matter.  Those  who  wished  to  learn  reading 


EDUCATION.  101 

and  writing  doubtless  found  an  opportunity  of  doing 
so,  but  not  in  the  institutes  conducted  by  the  State  ; 
at  any  rate,  we  find  no  mention  of  such.  Probably 
most  Spartans  did  learn  so  much,  but  very  little 
more.  A  little  arithmetic  was  added,  as  mental 
arithmetic  especially  was  regarded  as  important 
on  account  of  its  practical  utility.  But  this  was 
all  the  literary  culture  which  a  young  Spartan  re- 
ceived. They  also  studied  music,  for  which  the  Doric 
race  had  always  natural  ability  and  liking ;  and  this 
instruction  was  compulsory.  The  boys  learnt  to  play 
the  cithara  and  flute,  and  to  sing  songs  or  choruses  of 
serious  moral  nature.  The  inspectors  were  careful 
to  see  that  nothing  unsuitable  was  admitted  here,  and 
that  traditional  methods  were  adhered  to  in  harmony 
and  metre ;  therefore,  every  innovation  on  the  domain 
of  music  was  regarded  with  suspicion,  and  departure 
from  the  traditional  custom  was  sometimes  even 
punished. 

The  most  important  part  of  the  instruction  con- 
sisted in  gymnastic  exercises.  These  were  methodic- 
ally studied  on  rational  principles ;  the  exercises 
were  graduated  accord-ing  to  age,  and  only  those  were 
admitted  which  developed  strength  and  skill,  and  did 
not  merely  fit  a  man  for  the  career  of  an  athlete.  Their 
first  aim  was  to  make  their  men  good  warriors,  and 
this  they  certainly  attained.  But  it  was  a  necessary 
consequence  of  the  excessive  development  of  the 
physical  side,  and  the  disregard  of  all  higher  intelleCT 
tual  developments,  that  Sparta  never  attained  any 
real  greatness  in  literature  or  art.  Again,  however 
attractive  the  moral  seriousness  developed  by  the 
Spartan  education  may  seem  to  us,  we  cannot  deny 
that  the  deadening  of  the  family  feeling,  and  the 
complete  abandonment  of  everything  to  the  State, 


102  GREEK  LIFE  AT  HOME. 

produced  that  hardness  and  cruelty  which  we  so 
often  meet  with  in  the  history  of  Sparta. 

Very  different  was  the  system  of  education  at 
Athens.  Here  it  was  left  entirely  in  the  hands  of 
individuals.  The  State  provided  no  public  schools, 
but  only  appointed  certain  boards,  whose  duty  it  was 
to  see  that  there  were  no  offences  against  tradition  or 
morality  committed  in  the  private  institutes.  This 
duty  was  entrusted  to  the  superintendents  (eVt/AeX^rai 
and  (TwtypovMrrai).  These  were,  however,  chiefly  con- 
cerned with  the  youths,  and  thus  especially  with  the 
instruction  in  the  gymnas'.a.  We  do  not  know  how 
far  the  Areopagus  took  part  in  this  control 

As  a  rule,  Athenian  boys,  when  they  had  completed 
their  sixth  year,  were  entrusted  to  the  charge  of  an 
old  slave,  called  Paidagogos,  whose  duty  it  was,  not 
to  train  or  instruct  the  boys,  but  simply  to  accompany 
them  to  school,  or  on  their  walks,  and  to  watch  over 
their  behaviour.  As  it  wits  not  considered  correct  for 
the  son  of  an  Athenian  citizen  to  carry  his  school 
utensils  himself,  it  was  the  duty  of  the  paidagogos 
who  accompanied  him,  to  carry  his  books  or  his 
cithara,  his  strigil,  or  even  his.  ball.  Very  often  the 
paidagogos  remained  in  the  room  (or  perhaps  in  an 
ante-room)  during  the  lesson,  and  at  the  end  again 
accompanied  his  charge  home.  Though  he  was  only 
a  slave,  and  often  but  slightly  educated,  he  generally 
had  authority  given  him  over  the  boys  entrusted  to 
his  care.  When  they  reached  the  age  of  eighteen 
the  control  of  the  paidagogos  either  ceased  entirely,  or 
assumed  a  different  character. 

It  is  impossible  not  to  recognise  that  there  were 
many  objections  to  this  system.  It  was  by  no  means 
always  the  worthiest  and  most  trustworthy  slaves 
who  were  chosen  for  this  office,  but  rather  old  men 


EDUCATION.  103 

who  were  of  no  u»3  for  other  work,  and  who  were 
not  only  entirely  ignorant  intellectually,  but  whose 
manners  were  often  bad.  As  foreigners  they  often 
spoke  barbarous  Greek,  set  their  charges  a  bad 
example  by  fondness  for  drink,  or  else  winked  at 
their  faults  and  bad  habits ;  in  short,  were  by  no 
means  fitted  to  have  the  charge  of  growing  boys. 
Many  complaints  seem  to  have  been  made,  but  the 
practice  still  continued;  in  fact,  in  some  respects 
matters  grew  worse  in  the  HeUenistic  period.  On 
monuments,  where  we  often  see  them  accompanying 
boys,  even  in  mythological  representations  (e.g.,  The 
Children  of  Niobe,  Archemorus,  Medea,  etc.),  the 
paidagogoi  appear  in  a  special  dress  corresponding  to 
their  non-Hellenic  origin — in  a  chiton  with  sleeves, 
rough  cloak,  and  high  boots.  However,  this  corre- 
sponds to  the  practice  of  Greek  tragedy,  which  had 
fixed  costumes  for  certain  characters.  In  reality  the 
paidagogoi  probably  dressed  much  like  other  citizens. 
The  instruction  at  Athens  is  divided  into  two 
headings:  music  and  gymnastics.  Let  us  first  con- 
sider the  former.  It  appears  to  have  been  very  rare 
for  boys  to  be  taught  at  home  by  private  teachers. 
They  were  usually  sent  to  some  school  conducted  by 
an  elementary  teacher.  We  know  very  little  about 
the  arrangement  and  curriculum  of  these  schools. 
It  seems  that  boys  from  the  same  neighbourhood 
generally  attended  the  nearest  school,  and  were 
taught  there  in  the  same  room  by  one  teacher,  who 
had  to  instruct  in  turns  the  beginners  and  the  more 
advanced  pupils.  Cases  of  over-filled  classes  are 
mentioned,  but  these  do  not  refer  specially  to  Athens. 
It  is  not  improbable  that  classes  not  only  received 
different  instruction,  but  were  also  taught  in  separate 
rooms;  and  that  besides  the  master  who  was  the 


104  GREEK    LIFE    AT   HOME. 

director  and  proprietor  of  the  schools,  assistants  paid 
by  him  also  took  part  in  the  instruction.  But  in 
reality  we  know  very  little  about  these  matters  ;  it  is 
however,  certain  that  some  teachers  had  no  school- 
room at  all,  but  sat  out  in  the  street  with  their 
scholars — a  thing  which  is  only  possible  in  the  sunny 
South.  No  doubt  these  were  only  schools  for  the 
poor,  and  the  sons  of  rich  parents  did  not  attend 
them. 

The  furniture  of  the  schoolroom  was  doubtless 
very  simple.  A  music  teacher  sometimes  set  up  in  his 
school  statues  of  Apollo  and  the  Muses,  but  he  would 
be  well  paid,  and  we  must  not  expect  to  find  such 
luxuries  in  the  furniture  of  ordinary  elementary 
schools.  Here  probably,  there  was  little  more  than 
the  benches  for  the  boys,  a  seat  for  the  master,  and 
some  aids  to  teaching,  such  as  we  see  hanging  on 
the  walls  on  the  few  ancient  monuments  which  intro- 
duce us  to  Greek  schoolrooms.  (Compare  Fig.  75.) 
Among  the  requisites  was  a  white  board.  It  is  not 
probable  that  the  charts,  used  in  the  Roman  period  to 
impress  dates  of  mythology  and  history  on  the  pupils' 
minds  by  plastic  representation,  were  already  known 
to  Greek  antiquity.  The  master  supplied  the  ink 
required  for  instruction  in  writing  :  we  may  infer  this 
from  the  fact  that  Aeschines,  who  as  a  boy  used  to 
help  his  father,  a  schoolmaster,  had  to  mix  the  ink 
and  sweep  out  the  schoolroom.  The  salary  which  the 
master  received  for  his  instruction  probably  depended 
on  his  knowledge  and  ability ;  doubtless  popular 
teachers  were  well  paid.  But  it  was  not  a  paying 
profession,  for  it  is  not  likely  that  the  school  fees, 
usually  paid  monthly,  were  high ;  also  negligent 
fathers  often  put  off  paying  them  for  a  long  time; 
while  stingy  parents  kept  their  children  at  home 


BWTC'AllOV.  105 

during  a  month  in  which  there  •wsre  many  holidays, 
in  order  to  save  the  school  fees.  We  must  not  assume 
high  culture  in  these  elementary  teachers,  and  we 


Fio.  75. 

find  that  the  pupils  feared  their  masters  more  than 
they  loved  them,  which  is  natural,  seeing  that  they 
seem  to  have  made  a  freer  use  of  canes  and  sticks 
than  our  present  pedagogic  principles  would  permit. 
Still  we  do  not  find  any  Greek  pendant  to  Horace's 
Plagosus 
E» 


106  GREEK  LIFE   AT  HOME. 

Instruction  usually  began  early  in  the  morning; 
ye  do  not  know  how  long  it  lasted,  but  there  certainly 
were  lessons  given  hi  the  afternoon ;  an  ordinance  of 
Solon's  forbade  their  continuance  after  sunset.  We 
do  not  know  how  the  elementary  and  gymnastic 
instruction  were  combined.  There  were  plenty  of 
holidays,  owing  to  the  numerous  feasts  and  festivals ; 
there  were  also  special  school  festivals,  especially 
those  of  the  Muses  for  the  grammar  schools,  and  of 
Hermes  for  the  gymnasia. 

A  very  interesting  picture  by  the  vase  painter 
Duris,  represented  in  Fig.  75,  gives  us,  in  spite  of 
some  artistic  liberties,  an  excellent  idea  of  Attic 
school  teaching  in  the  fifth  century  B.C.  The  scenes 
are  represented  on  the  outside  of  a  bowl;  on  each 
half  five  people  are  depicted :  two  masters,  two  pupils, 
and  an  oldish  man  looking  on.  This  cannot,  there- 
fore, represent  one  of  the  ordinary  schoolrooms,  where 
a  single  master  instructs  together  a  whole  class  ot 
boys,  for  each  boy  is  being  instructed  by  a  separate 
teacher.  Perhaps  this  is  a  liberty  on  the  part  of  the 
painter,  who  has  grouped  together  four  separate 
scenes,  or  else  this  individual  instruction  may  really 
have  taken  place  even  in  the  public  schools.  Masters 
and  pupils  are  dressed  alike,  wearing  only  the  hima- 
tion.  It  is  important,  however,  to  remember  what 
was  stated  on  page  20,  that  this  dress  on  the  monu- 
ments by  no  means  corresponds  to  reality,  and,  as 
a  rule,  the  chiton  cannot  have  been  wanting  under 
the  hiiuation.  The  masters,  some  of  whom  are  young 
and  beardless,  others  more  advanced  in  age,  sit  on 
simple  stools ;  with  the  exception  of  one  pupil,  who  is 
learning  the  lyre,  the  boys  stand  upright  before  them, 
both  arms  wrapped  in  their  cloaks,  as  was  considered 
fitting  for  well-bred  youths.  Of  course,  the  boy  with 


EDUCATION.  107 

the  lyre  must  nave  the  upper  part  of  his  body  free, 
and  his  himation  is  folded  over  his  knee.  There  is  a 
difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  two  bearded  men 
leaning  on  their  sticks,  who  are  present  at  these 
scenes,  and  attentively  looking  on ;  it  has  been  sug- 
gested that  they  are  paidagogoi,  who  have  accom- 
panied the  boys  to  school,  and  are  superintending 
them  during  the  instruction ;  or  else,  on  account  of 
the  manner  in  which  they  are  sitting,  it  has  been 
assumed  that  they  are  fathers  or  inspectors. 

The  subjects  taught  here  all  belong  to  musical 
instruction  (that  is,  instruction  over  which  the  Muses 
preside),  and  are  partly  concerned  with  grammatical 
teaching,  partly  with  actual  teaching  of  music. 
On  one  side  we  see  a  young  teacher  playing  the 
double  pipe,  while  the  boy  standing  in  front  of  him 
listens  attentively.  It  is  usually  assumed  that  the 
boy  is  learning  to  play  the  flute,  but  then  it  is  curious 
that  he  has  not  an  instrument  in  his  own  hands,  like 
the  boy  who  is  learning  the  lyre ;  for  if  he  wished  to 
imitate  what  the  teacher  is  showing  him,  he  would 
have  to  take  the  master's  instrument.  There  is 
something,  therefore,  to  be  said  for  the  hypothesis 
that  the  boy  is  learning  to  sing,  and  the  master  is 
giving  him  on  the  flute  the  notes  or  the  melody 
which  he  has  to  sing.  The  scene  on  the  right  of  this 
represents  instruction  in  writing.  The  boy  stands 
in  the  same  position  as  the  other,  before  another 
young  teacher,  who  holds  a  triptych  consisting  of 
three  little  folding  tablets,  open  before  him,  and 
has  a  pencil  in  his  right  hand.  He  is  looking 
attentively  at  the  tablet,  either  correcting  the  boy's 
writing  or  about  himself  to  write  a  copy  for'  -the 
pupil.  On  the  other  side  of  the  picture  we  have, 
on  the  left,  musical  instruction.  Both  master  and 


108  GREEK    LIFE   AT  HOME. 

pupil  have  seven-stringed  lyres  in  their  hands ; 
at  the  moment  represented  the  master  seems  to 
be  only  showing  the  boy  how  to  grasp  the  chords  by 
the  fingers  of  the  left  hand,  and  is  making  no  use  of 
the  rod  (Tr\rjKrpov),  which  he  holds  in  his  right.  The 
boy,  who  sits  bent  forward,  is  trying  to  imitate  the 
master's  action.  The  last  group  represents  a  pupil 
who  appears  to  be  reciting  a  poem,  the  beginning  of 
which  is  written  on  the  scroll  which  the  master  holds 
in  his  hand. 

Various  implements  hang  on  the  walls  of  the 
schoolroom :  at  one  side  a  roll  of  manuscript  with  a 
handle  ;  next  to  it  a  writing  tablet,  with  a  cord 
fastened  round  it,  and  a  handle ;  next,  a  lyre 
and  a  curious  cross,  which  is  not  easy  to  interpret ; 
some  think  that  it  is  meant  for  a  sextant  for  the 
geometrical  instruction.  On  the  other  side  hang  two 
drinking-cups,  which  the  pupils  are  probably  allowed 
to  use  during  the  intervals  ;  two  seven-stringed  lyres ; 
a  basket  with  handle  and  feet,  probably  used  to  con- 
tain the  manuscripts ;  and  finally,  a  case  for  a  flute, 
with  the  capsule  for  the  mouthpieces  hanging  to  it. 

We  must  now  examine  more  closely  the  special 
implements  used  in  musical  instruction,  and  the  mode 
in  which  that  instruction  was  given.  Elementary 
knowledge  of  reading  and  writing  was  very  common, 
at  any  rate  in  Attica,  and  people  who  were  un- 
acquainted with  either  were  even  rarer  in  ancient 
Greece  than  in  our  own  day.  In  the  school  of 
the  teacher  who  had  charge  of  the  boys'  elementary 
grammatical  instruction  (ypa^ana-T^},  the  boy  was 
probably  first  taught  his  letters,  their  names  and 
shapes,  and  very  likely  some  external  helps  were 
used  for  this  purpose  ;  at  any  rate,  these  were  common 
in  later  periods.  The  next  process  was  combining  the 


EDUCATION.  109 

letters  in  syllables ;  and  thus  gradually  they  advanced 
to  reading  whole  words.  At  the  same  time,  probably, 
instruction  in  writing  began.  The  master  made 
single  letters  and  words  for  the  pupils  to  copy  in  the 
space  left  free  under  his  lines,  and  probably  helped 
them  a  little  by  guiding  their  hands.  The  place  of 
our  slate  was  taken  by  a  wax  tablet.  This  was  a 
wooden  tablet  covered  with  a  thin  coating  of  wax, 
in  which  the  letters  were  scratched  with  a  pointed 
style,  made  of  bone,  ivory,  or  metal;  the  broad  end 
was  used  for  flattening  the  wax  when  the  slate 
was  full,  and  then  it  could  be  used  again.  There 
were  generally  two,  three,  or  more  of  these  tablets 
connected  by  hinges,  and  these  were  called  diptycJt, 
triptych,  etc.  It  was  only  more  advanced  pupils  who 
were  allowed  to  use  such  expensive  material  as 
papyrus  and  reeds  for  -  v/riting,  and  even  then,  on 
account  of  the  expense,  they  were  not  provided  with 
new  paper,  but  wrote  on  the  back  of  what  had 
already  been  used.  Chance  has  preserved  to  us,  in  a 
discovery  dating  from  the  age  of  the  Ptolemies,  some 
very  interesting  specimens  of  Greek  instruction  in 
writing — several  wax  tablets,  six  inches  long  and  four 
inches  broad,  all  containing  the  same  Greek  trimeter 
verses,  probably  by  Menander.  The  writing  on  one 
of  these  tablets,  which  was  probably  the  master's  copy, 
is  good  and  careful ;  that  on  the  others,  the  pupils' 
copies,  is  inferior.  Under  one  the  word  "  industrious  " 
has  been  written  by  the  master's  hand.  But  slight 
demands  seem  to  have  been  made  on  the  pupils  in 
the  matter  of  writing,  and  more  stress  was  laid  on 
clearness  than  beauty  or  speed,  since  there  were 
always  experienced  slaves  ready  to  do  work  of  this 
kind. 

For  reading  lessons  the  poets  were  chiefly  used, 


110  GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 

and  their  writings  were  inscribed  in  manuscripts 
which  were  either  rolled  or  folded.  (Compaie  Fig. 
75.)  Homer  was  used  as  the  school  book  of  tha 
Greeks,  from  the  earliest  periods  to  the  fall  of  tha 
Byzantine  Empire,  and  his  writings  were  read  and 
expounded,  as  well  as  other  poems  in  various  metres, 
chiefly  of  a  lyrical  character.  The  master  then  either 
gave  the  boys  copies,  which  he  had  probably  made 
himself,  or  else,  if  they  were  already  able  to  write, 
dictated  longish  passages  to  them;  the  pupils  also 
had  to  learn  a  good  deal  by  heart.  Many  teachers 
prepared  anthologies  of  various  writers  for  reading 
purposes ;  those  especially  were  chosen  which  by 
their  contents  were  well  adapted  for  the  reading  of 
youth,  such  as  Hesiod,  Theognis,  Phocylides,  etc. 
The  boys  thus,  by  their  reading  and  learning,  ac- 
quired a  knowledge  of  mythology,  while  at  the  same 
time  the  most  important  ethical  principles  were 
impressed  on  them.  We  must  be  careful  not  to  rate 
too  low  the  results  of  this  instruction,  however  little 
we  may  think  of  the  Athenian  acquirements  in  the 
mechanical  arts  of  reading  and  writing.  A  people  who 
knew  how  to  appreciate  the  tragedies  of  Aeschylus, 
who  could  understand  the  comedies  of  Aristophanes, 
with  their  fulness  of  mythological,  literary,  and 
political  allusions,  must  have  possessed  a  degree  of 
culture  which  in  many  respects  was  far  above  the 
average  of  the  present  day.  It  was,  of  course,  easier 
for  the  pupils  to  acquire  a  large  amount  of  mytho- 
logical and  literary  knowledge  when  there  were  so 
few  subjects  to  study ;  since  natural  science,  geography, 
history,  and  foreign  languages  were  all  disregarded. 
In  reading,  the  elements  of  prosody  were  also  learnt, 
and  these  were  more  fully  treated  in  the  musical 
instruction. 


EDUCATION.  Ill 

We  are  no  longer  in  a  position  to  state  how 
arithmetic,  with  whose  practical  uses  the  ancients 
were  naturally  well  acquainted,  was  taught ;  but  it  is 
probable  that — at  any  rate  at  Athens — this  instruction 
was  given  at  home  and  not  at  school,  and  was  acquired 
by  children  in  play  by  means  of  concrete  objects, 
which  enabled  them  to  learn  the  principal  notions 
and  relations.  As  regards  method,  counting  on  the 
fingers  was  very  common  in  Greece.  The  left  hand 
was  used  to  represent  all  the  units  and  tens,  and 
with  the  addition  of  the  right  hand  all  the  hundreds 
and  thousands;  the  mode  in  which  a  finger  was 
placed  on  the  open  palm  and  the  number  of  the 
fingers,  which  were  either  bent  or  stretched  out, 
determined  the  number  required.  More  complicated 
calculations  were  performed  by  help  of  an  abacus 
with  little  stones,  an  ancient  invention  long  known 
to  the  Egyptians,  in  which  the  arrangement  of  the 
stones  in  the  parallel  lines  on  the  board  determined 
their  value  as  units,  tens,  hundreds,  etc.  We  do  not, 
however,  know  anything  further  about  the  arrange- 
ment of  the  Greek  abacus. 

The  instruction  in  these  elementary  subjects  occu- 
pied the  first  years  of  school  life.  In  the  twelfth  or 
thirteenth  year  the  instruction  in  music  began,  and 
was  given  by  a  special  master  called  the  harpist 
(KiOapi<TTr)s),  the  Greeks  regarding  music  not  from 
the  standpoint  of  the  modern  amateur,  as  only  a 
pleasant  distraction  for  hours  of  recreation,  but  rather 
as  an  essential  means  of  ethical  development.  The 
main  object  of  the  instruction  was  not  the  attainment 
of  facility  in  execution  on  any  instrument,  but  rather 
ability  to  render  as  well  as  possible  the  productions 
of  the  poets,  especially  the  lyrists,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  accompany  themselves  suitably  on  a  seven- 


112  GREEK  LIFE   AT  HOME. 

stringed  instrument.  Accordingly,  most  weight  was 
given  to  the  instruction  in  the  lyre  (which  we  see  in 
Fig.  75  in  the  hand  of  both  teacher  and  pupil),  while 
the  cithara,  on  account  of  its  louder  sounding-board 
as  well  as  the  phorminx,  which  was  connected  with 
it,  if  not,  in  fact,  identical,  were  reserved  for  the  use 
of  professionals,  and  were  regarded  as  a  kind  of  con- 
cert instrument,  and  therefore  learned  specially  by 
those  who  desired  to  attain  something  more  than 
average  proficiency  in  music.  No  doubt  there  was 
opportunity  given  in  the  ordinary  schools  for  learning 
both  kinds  of  stringed  instrument  The  flute,  which, 
when  used  for  purposes  of  accompaniment,  could 
naturally  not  be  played  by  the  singer,  was  on  this 
account  less  popular  at  Athens  ;  at  Thebes,  on  the 
other  hand,  it  was  universally  popular,  and  it  has 
been  supposed  that  the  neglect  of  the  flute  at  Athens 
was  due  to  the  ancient  antagonism  between  Attica 
and  Bo  otia;  moreover,  the  flute,  which  originally 
belonged  to  the  Bacchic  worship  of  Asia  Minor,  with 
its  sharp,  shrill  tone,  was  regarded  as  an  exciting 
instrument,  hostile  to  a  calm  state  of  rnind,  and 
therefore ,  the  philosophers  all  agreed  in  considering  it 
unsuitable  from  a  pedagogic  point  of  view.  We  must 
not  forget  that  the  Greek  flute  was  very  different 
from  that  to  which  we  give  the  name  at  the  present 
day,  which  is  regarded  as  a  somewhat  sentimental, 
effeminate  instrument.  There  was,  however,  a  time 
when  flute-playing  was  popular  at  Athens  among 
amateurs  ;  according  to  Aristotle,  the  flute  was  intro- 
duced into  Attic  schools  after  the  time  of  the  Persian 
Wars,  and  soon  became  so  popular  that  almost  all 
the  youths  of  the  better  classes  learnt  to  play  on  it. 
Afterwards,  however,  apparently  about  the  time  of 
the  Peloponnesian  War,  they  recognised  how  very 


EDUCATION.  113 

unsuitable  this  instrument  was  for  intellectual  and 
musical  development,  and  it  was  again  discarded  by 
people  of  culture,  probably  in  consequence  of  the 
example  set  by  Alcibiades,  who  was  regarded  as  a 
leader  of  fashion.  Afterwards  the  flute  was  still 
learnt,  and  on  vase  pictures  we  see  flutists  and 
hetaerae  playing  it,  as  well  as  youths,  but  it  was  no 
longer  a  subject  of  instruction  hi  the  ordinary 
schools  —  at  any  rate,  not  at  Athens.  Naturally 
Sparta  carefully  avoided  an  instrument  which 
was  regarded  as  absolutely  dangerous  in  its  ethical 
effect. 

No  musical  instruction,  besides  the  elemen- 
tary subjects  and  playing  on  stringed  instruments 
and  singing,  was  given  at  school  during  the  best 
period  of  Athens.  Boys  attended  school  until  the 
age  of  adolescence :  that  is,  about  their  sixteenth 
year ;  though  it  is  not  probable  that  there  was  a  definite 
limit  of  age ;  those  who  wished  to  extend  their  educa- 
tion had  opportunities  for  doing  so,  even  in  the  fifth 
century,  by  attending  the  sophists'  lectures.  How- 
ever, compared  with  the  cheap  fees  of  the  elementary 
schools,  the  honorarium  paid  to  these  by  their  pupils 
was  very  high.  There  was  no  question  of  organised 
school  instruction. 

In  the  course  of  the  fourth  and  the  third  centuries 
B.C.  some  other  subjects  of  instruction  were  added  to 
these.  After  the  tune  of  Alexander  the  Great, 
drawing  was  also  taught  to  boys ;  probably  this 
was  due  to  the  influence  of  Pamphilus,  who  was 
the  Principal  of  the  Painting  School  of  Sicyon. 
The  pupils  learnt  to  draw  with  a  style,  or  brush, 
on  boxwood  tablets,  specially  prepared  for  the  pur- 
pose. As  the  school  of  Sicyon  laid  especial  stress 
on  correct  drawing,  and  appears  to  have  been 


114  GREEK  LIFE  AT  HOME. 

rather  behind  the  others  in  colouring,  we  may 
assume  that  the  -instruction  in  drawing  was  chiefly 
confined  to  outline,  but  we  have  few  exact  details 
concerning  it. 

At  that  time  instruction  in  the  elements  of 
geometry  was  added  to  the  teaching  in  arithmetic, 
but  only  the  older  boys  appear  to  have  learnt  it.  This 
seems  to  have  begun  as  early  as  the  fifth  century,  but 
Socrates  thought  it  ought  to  be  limited  to  what  was 
absolutely  necessary.  The  philosophers  of  the  fourth 
century,  however,  recommended  geometry  as  an  ex- 
cellent means  for  developing  and  sharpening  the 
intellect  and  logical  powers.  Plato  even  suggests 
teaching  boys  in  play  not  only  arithmetic  and  geo- 
metry, but  also  the  first  principles  of  astronomy,  and 
afterwards  continuing  the  study  more  seriously  till 
about  their  eighteenth  year.  Astronomy,  however, 
would  only  signify  to  them  what  we  now  include 
in  mathematical  geography.  Less  educated  people 
had  a  decided  prejudice  against  geometry  and  other 
such  abstract  studies,  on  the  ground  that  they  were 
quite  superfluous,  since  they  were  of  no  practical  use 
in  after  years,  either  for  the  purposes  of  private  or 
public  life ;  and  the  opinion  so  often  heard  at  the 
present  day  prevailed  even  then,  that  these  subjects, 
since  they  could  not  be  practically  applied  in  after 
life,  were  only  learnt  for  the  purpose  of  being  forgotten 
as  soon  as  possible. 

In  this  manner  the  grammatical  and  musical 
instruction  developed  the  intellect  of  the  boys,  while 
gymnastic  exercises  were  used  to  strengthen  and  train 
their  bodies.  Although  these  did  not  occupy  quite 
so  prominent  a  position  at  Athens  as  in  the  Dorian 
states,  yet  considerable  time  and  attention  were 
devoted  to  them,  since  the  real  aim  of  all  pedagogic 


EDUCATION.  115 

efforts  was  supposed  to  be  the  harmonious  develop- 
ment of  body  and  mind.  It  is  not  easy  to  determine 
at  what  age  the  gymnastic  training  began ;  what 
Plato  and  Aristotle  say  on  the  subject  merely  gives 
the  pedagogic  opinion  of  these  philosophers,  but  does 
not  refer  to  actual  existing  circumstances.  Among 
modern  scholars  some  assume  that  both  musical  and 
gymnastic  instruction  began  with  the  seventh  year, 
and  that  from  that  time  onwards  boys  went  every  day 
to  two  distinct  schools.  Others  suppose  that  gymnas- 
tic instruction  came  first,  but  that  at  first  the  exercises 
were  easy  ones,  suited  to  the  previous  life  of  the  child 
and  tending  to  strengthen  his  body,  and  that  after- 
wards the  training  in  elementary  subjects  began. 
We  have  too  little  information  to  pronounce  a  definite 
opinion. 

The  buildings  in  which  the  boys  received  theii 
gymnastic  training  were  not,  as  was  formerly  sup- 
posed, the  gymnasia,  but  the  wrestling  schools 
(TraXalarpai) — a  name  given  to  these  establishments 
because  wrestling  and  running  were  regarded  as  the 
most  important  exercises  in  elementary  gymnastic 
training.  No  doubt  other  gymnastic  exercises  were 
practised  at  the  wrestling  school.  Of  course,  many 
changes  took  place  in  the  course  of  centuries  till  the 
time  of  the  Roman  Empire,  and  therefore  it  is  but 
natural  that  very  various  opinions  should  prevail 
about  the  wrestling  school  and  the  gymnasium.  The 
most  probable  theory  is,  that,  at  any  rate  at  Athens 
in  its  best  period,  the  instruction  in  gymnastics  was 
given  at  the  wrestling  school,  while  the  gymnasium 
was  used  for  the  further  training  and  development  of 
the  youths.  The  wrestling  school  was  not  a  public 
institute,  but  a  private  undertaking  conducted  by  a 
teacher  of  gymnastics,  who  received  a  fee  for  the  use 


116  GREEK  LIFE  AT  HOME. 

of  the  building  and  the  instruction  given  by  him. 
These  schools  were  under  directors  and  managers 
(•TraiSoTpipai) ;  the  institutes  usually  bore  their  names, 
but  they  were  sometimes  called  after  the  founder. 
Like  other  masters,  they  had  a  full  disciplinary 
right  over  their  pupils ;  but  they  were  also  subject 
to  the  supervision  of  the  inspectors  mentioned  above, 
whose  duty  it  was  to  see  that  nothing  which  offended 
against  morality  took  place  in  the  gymnastic  insti- 
tutes, and  also  that  the  instruction  was  methodical 
and  suited  to  the  different  ages.  Besides  these 
inspectors,  no  one  else,  except  the  paidagogoi  who 
accompanied  their  charges,  was  allowed  to  be  present 
at  the  instruction  in  the  wrestling  school ;  an  ordi- 
nance of  Solon's  forbade  admission  to  grown  men, 
but  in  later  times  this  rule  seems  to  have  fallen 
into  disuse. 

The  gymnastic  training  had  a  double  purpose  ;  in 
the  first  place  to  teach  the  boys  a  modest  and  digni- 
fied bearing  (much  as  dancing  is  taught  in  the  present 
day),  and  in  the  second,  which,  of  course,  was  most 
important,  to  train  them  in  the  chief  gymnastic  exer- 
cises. These  were  jumping,  which  included  both  the 
high  and  long  jump,  for  which  purpose  dumb-bells  were 
generally  used;  racing,  throwing  the  quoit  and  the 
spear,  and  wrestling.  Boxing  was  not  included  in  the 
instruction  given  to  boys,  nor  yet  the  pancratium,  a 
combination  of  wrestling  and  boxing,  nor  the  pen- 
tathlUm,  a  combination  of  five  exercises  specially  used 
in  athletic  contests,  and  therefore  not  generally  prac- 
tised at  the  wrestling  unless  boys  were  to  take  part 
in  some  public  contest,  in  which  case  they  might,  of 
course,  be  prepared  here  beforehand.  We  shall  deal 
later  on  in  greater  detail  with  the  separate  exercises, 
and  must  therefore  content  ourselves  for  the  present 


EDUCATION.  117 

with  merely  enumerating  them,  since  the  exercises 
of  the  boys  only  differed  in  degree,  but  not  in  kind, 
from  those  of  the  youths  and  men. 

Such  was  the  training  given  to  the  boys  until" 
about  their  sixteenth  year.  This  was,  however,  by  no 
means  the  end  of  their  education,  at  any  rate  not  for 
boys  of  the  better  classes,  who  were  not  obliged  to 
follow  any  definite  profession ;  and  the  gymnastic 
training  extended  for  several  years  longer.  The  years 
between  adolescence  and  somewhere  about  the  twen- 
tieth year  were  generally  called  ephebeia;  but  besides 
this  expression  we  find  a  good  many  others,  especially 
in  inscriptions,  which  prove  that  there  were  several 
sub-divisions  for  the  purposes  of  gymnastic  exercises 
and  tests,  made  according  to  age  ;  in  fact,  they  gener- 
ally distinguished  between  a  first,  second,  and  third 
class  of  ephebi.  But  there  were  other  special  names 
in  use.  In  ancient  times  the  only  distinction  in  the  gym- 
nastic tests  was  between  boys  and  men,  and  the  ephebi 
were  therefore  included  in  the  former  class  ;  but  after- 
wards they  distinguished  between  boys,  youths,  and  men, 
though  these  designations  and  their  sub-divisions  accord- 
ing to  age  seem  to  have  varied  a  good  deal  according 
to  time  and  place.  In  any  case,  we  must  distinguish 
between  the  use  of  the  term  ephebus  in  the  gymnastic 
classes  and  in  the  State.  For  State  purposes  it  was 
not  applied  till  the  eighteenth  or  nineteenth  year,  and 
the  boy  had  then  to  take  his  oath  as  a  citizen ;  his 
name  was  entered  in  the  book  of  his  deme,  and  he 
received  a  warrior's  shield  and  spear.  The  oath  taken 
by  the  ephebi,  composed  by  Solon,  has  been  preserved 
to  us.  The  youth  had  to  swear  "  Never  to  disgrace 
his  holy  arms,  never  to  forsake  his  comrade  in  the 
ranks,  but  to  fight  for  the  holy  temples  and  the 
common  welfare,  alone  or  with  others ;  to  leave  his 


118  GREEK  LIFE  AT  HOME. 

country,  not  in  a  worse,  but  in  a  better  state  than  he 
found  it ;  to  obey  the  magistrates  and  the  laws,  and 
defend  them  against  attack  ;  finally  to  hold  in  honour 
the  religion  of  his  country."  The  witnesses  to  this 
oath  were,  besides  Zeus,  a  number  of  special  Attic 
local  deities  of  military  or  agrarian  importance. 

When  a  boy  attained  to  the  condition  of  ephebus 
he  discarded  the  himation  and  adopted  the  chlamys 
as  his  characteristic  dress.  The  hair,  which  was  worn 
long  by  boys,  was  cut  short,  and  this  act  of  cutting 
the  hair  was  a  kind  of  religious  ceremony,  since  the 
hair  cut  off  was  often  dedicated  to  some  deity.  This 
sacred  rite,  the  importance  of  which  we  can  better 
understand  if  we  imagine  our  modern  rite  of  Con- 
firmation combined  with  the  Attainment  of  majority, 
was  usually  celebrated  as  a  festival  in  the  family 
circle.  The  new  ephebi,  after  taking  their  oath  and 
receiving  their  arms,  were  presented  publicly  to  the 
people  in  the  Theatre.  This  usually  took  place  at 
the  festival  of  Dionysus,  immediately  before  the  per- 
formance of  a  tragedy.  It  is,  however,  not  quite 
certain  whether  this  introduction  was  confined  to  the 
sons  of  those  only  who  had  fallen  in  battle,  whose 
equipment  was  presented  to  them  by  the  State.  This, 
however,  like  most  of  the  details  which  we  have  about 
the  ephebeia  in  Ancient  Greece,  refers  specially  to 
Athens  ;  at  Sparta  and  other  places  there  were  cus- 
toms, more  or  less  different,  of  which  we  know  little  or 
nothing.  Moreover,  at  Athens,  as  well  as  in  the  rest 
of  Greece  and  Asia  Minor,  the  usage  concerning 
the  ephebi  underwent  many  changes  during  the 
Hellenistic  period  and  the  Roman  Empire.  The 
numerous  inscriptions  give  us  far  more  exact  details 
of  this  later  period  than  of  the  best  time ;  but  we 
refrain  from  discussing  them,  since  this  institution, 


EDUCATION.  119 

which  originally  had  an  essentially  warlike  character, 
gradually  became  a  mere  matter  of  form,  and  was 
confined  to  the  sons  of  rich  citizens,  who  merely 
played  with  the  customs  without  regarding  their 
ethical  or  political  importance.  Most  of  the  informa- 
tion which  the  inscriptions  supply  about  the  officers 
and  teachers  of  the  ephebi  also  belongs  to  the  later 
period ;  a  great  many  boards  of  management  for  the 
arrangements  concerning  the  ephebi,  which  became 
more  and  more  complicated,  were  either  created  fresh 
or  transformed  out  of  the  older  ones,  but  their 
importance  and  powers  were  entirely  different.  More- 
over, our  purpose  is  to  confine  our  attention  to  the 
classical  and  Hellenistic  period. 

We  mentioned  above  that  the  place  where  the 
ephebi  received  their  gymnastic  instruction,  or  prac- 
tised on  their  own  account,  was  the  gymnasium. 
The  gymnasia,  of  which  every  town  possessed 
one  or  more,  were  not,  like  the  wrestling  schools, 
private  undertakings  on  the  part  of  gymnastic 
teachers,  but  State  institutions.  At  Athens  the 
two  oldest  institutions  of  the  kind  were  the 
Academy  and  the  Cynosarges,  at  the  foot  of  the 
Lycabettos,  and  in  the  time  of  Pericles  the  Lyceum 
was  added  as  a  third  ;  the  gymnasium  of  Ptolemy  was 
not  built  till  the  Hellenistic  period.  The  originally 
simple  structure  and  arrangement  of  these  institutions 
became  in  the  course  of  centuries  more  complicated 
and  extensive ;  and,  though  the  first  gymnasia  were 
probably  not  more  than  simple  halls  supported  by 
columns,  with  a  racecourse  attached,  hi  course  of  time 
other  rooms  were  added,  and  also  baths,  since  the 
gymnastic  exercises  rendered  bathing  immediately 
afterwards  absolutely  necessary.  At  the  time  of 
Plato  a  number  of  different  rooms  belonging  to  the 


120  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

gymnasia  are  mentioned,  which  show  that  even  at 
that  time  these  must  have  been  very  extensive.  We 
cannot  clearly  tell,  from  the  accounts  of  the  Grcjek 
writers,  how  these  rooms  were  arranged  and  connected, 
and  the  description  given  by  Vitravius  of  a  gymna- 
sium is  but  unsatisfactory,  because  in  many  points  he 
is  not  clear  in  his  expressions.  Moreover,  it  does  not 
give  a  general  scheme,  but  only  a  particular  descrip- 
tion, and  this  may  not  refer  to  his  own  period,  as  has 
been  generally  assumed,  since  the  Roman  g}7mnasia 
were  on  a  far  more  complicated  plan  than  the  one 
described  by  Vitruvius,  but  rather  to  an  earlier  period, 
though  not  the  best. 

We  are  enabled  to  complete  and  correct  the  state- 
ments of  Vitruvius  from  the  rums  of  various  gymnasia 
in  Asia  Minor  and  Greece,  especially  those  of  Perga- 
mum  and  Olympia.  The  description  of  Vitruvius 
connects  the  gymnasium  and  the  wrestling  school, 
but  we  must  distinguish  this  wrestling  place,  which 
was  a  necessary  part  of  the  whole  plan  of  the  gymna- 
sium, from  that  mentioned  above,  which  was  only 
used  as  a  gymnastic  school  for  boys.  In  the  plan 
given  by  Vitruvius  the  centre  is  a  square  court  with 
covered  arcades ;  connected  with  this  are  a  space  for 
the  ephebi,  rooms  for  exercises  with  the  corycus 
(boxing  with  a  dummy),  for  anointing,  sprinkling  with 
dust  or  sand  previous  to  wrestling,  bath-rooms  for  hot 
and  cold  baths,  etc. ;  further,  in  connection  with  these 
principal  buildings  there  are  covered  racecourses,  with 
levelled  floors,  gardens,  and  places  for  exercise,  for 
rest,  exedrae,  etc.  The  arrangements  of  the  gymna- 
sium at  Olympia,  which  probably  dates  from  the  end 
of  the  fourth  or  the  beginning  of  the  third  century 
B.C.,  seem  to  have  been  simpler.  We  can  distinguish 
two  separate  buildings — a  smaller  one,  the  actual 


EDUCATION  121 

palaestra,  which  has  been  almost  entirely  uncovered  ; 
and  a  larger,  the  large  gymnasium,  of  which  only  a 
little  has  been  excavated.  Both  lie  close  together,  west 
of  the  sacred  grove  of  Altis,  near  the  banks  of  the 
Kladeos;  it  was,  in  fact,  very  common  to  place  the 
gymnasia  near  running  water,  in  order  to  have  at 
hand  the  water  so  necessary  for  the  baths.  We  do  not, 
however,  find  any  trace  of  those  complicated  bathing 
arrangements  described  by  Vitruvius,  and  probably 
they  did  not  become  common  till  the  Roman  period. 
In  the  wrestling  school  of  Olympia  we  can  only  trace 
one  large  bath,  but  still  it  is  possible  that  there  were 
more  extensive  arrangements  in  the  larger  gymnasium. 
The  wrestling  school  itself  is  a  square,  the  sides  of 
which  measure  about  sixty-four  yards  each,  surrounded 
with  Doric  arcades  ;  on  the  south  there  is  a  long  hall 
in  the  Ionic  style;  on  the  three  other  sides  are  also 
halls  and  little  rooms,  the  purpose  of  which  we  cannot 
determine,  connected  with  the  inner  court  by  doors  or 
porticoes  ;  on  the  north  wall  is  the  door  connecting  it 
with  the  south  hall  of  the  larger  gymnasium.  This, 
latter  was  separated  from  the  wrestling  place,  though, 
as  a  rule,  this  is  an  integral  part,  or  even  the  centre  of 
the  whole  structure  ;  it  is  oblong  in  form,  and  is  sur- 
rounded by  arcades  on  two  or  three  sides.  The 
eastern  hall  extends  to  the  length  of  210J  yards.  No 
doubt  the  exercises  in  jumping,  running,  throwing  the 
quoit  and  spear,  took  place  here.  The  best-preserved 
ruins  are  those  of  Ephesus  and  Alexandria  Troas,  but 
even  here  we  are  obliged  to  be  very  arbitrary  in  our 
attempts  at  reconstruction. 

In  any  case  it  is  certain  that  the  gymnasia  of  the 
classic  period  gave  sufficient  opportunity  for  different 
kinds  of  gymnastic  exercises,  as  well  as  for  wrestling 
and  the  various  contests,  and  also  supplied  places  for 


122  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME 

recreation  and  comfortable  repose  from  the  fatigues  of 
physical  exertion.  The  superintendence  of  the  youths 
who  practised  here,  and  the  maintaining  of  order  were 
the  duty  of  the  Gymnasiarchs.  They  had  the  right  of 
discipline,  which  they  could  exercise  over  any  visitor 
to  the  gymnasium,  and  in  token  of  this  they  carried  a 
rod ;  thus  we  often  see  on  vase  pictures,  among  the 
gymnasts,  men  with  long  sticks,  probably  meant  to 
represent  the  gymnasiarchs.  In  the  older  period 
at  Athens  there  was  but  one  gymnasiarch,  but 
afterwards  several  shared  the  dignity.  We  cannot 
decide  how  far  they  also  exercised  a  right  of  con- 
trol over  the  wrestling- schools.  Besides  the  gymnasi- 
arch, or  perhaps  below  him,  was  a  board  of  officials 
whose  duty  it  was  to  see  to  the  preservation  of  the 
buildings  and  of  the  implements  used  in  the  gymnasia, 
while  the  general  superintendence  of  the  gymnastic 
exercises,  and  therefore  also  of  the  gymnasia,  was 
exercised  by  the  superintendents  mentioned  above 
(page  113),  and,  as  a  rule,  men  somewhat  advanced  in 
years  were  chosen  for  these  posts. 

There  were  other  officials  who  were  not  so  much 
concerned  with  the  external  arrangements  of  the 
gymnasia  as  with  the  instruction  given  there.  The 
president  of  the  gymnasium  and  head  of  the  teachers 
(icoa-fjLrjTijs)  is  not  mentioned  until  the  late  Hellenic 
and  Roman  periods,  under  him  were  the  actual 
teachers  and  also  those  who  instructed  the  ephebi  in 
grammar,  rhetoric,  and  philosophy  ;  but  in  the  classic 
period  no  instruction  of  this  kind  was  given.  At  that 
time,  however,  we  find  the  trainer  (yvpvaarr)?)  acting  as 
gymnastic  teacher  to  the  older  youths,  whose  aim  was 
to  prepare  themselves  for  athletic  contests,  and  who  in- 
tended to  enter  the  lists  as  professional  athletes.  As 
boys  were  sometimes  prepared  for  such  contests,  no 


EDUCATION.  123 

doubt  on  occasion  the  trainer  took  the  place  of  the 
ordinary  leacher ;  and  again,  on  the  other  hand,  a 
competent  gymnastic  master  sometimes  undertook 
the  training  of  athletes.  Generally  speaking,  how- 
ever, in  the  older  period  this  distinction  was  main- 
tained, that  the  boys'  teacher  was  concerned  chiefly 
with  the  general  training  of  the  body  suitable  for 
everyone,  and  wrestling  on  a  rational  and  hygienic 
basis,  while  the  trainer  was  a  professional  teacher, 
and  was  more  concerned  with  special  subjects  than 
the  general  harmonious  development  of  the  body. 
Below  these  teachers  stood  the  rubber  (aXe/Trr?;?), 
whose  task  was  originally  a  purely  mechanical  one . 
but  gradually  when  anointing  and  rubbing  came  to  be 
regarded  from  the  hygienic  point  of  view,  and  were 
perhaps  connected  with  a  kind  of  massage,  his  stand- 
ing improved,  and  after  a  time  he  took  a  far  more 
important  position  than  belonged  to  him  of  right. 

In  spite  of  the  numerous  allusions  to  the  instruc- 
tion of  the  ephebi  which  have  come  down  to  us,  there 
is  a  good  deal  that  is  still  doubtful  or  unexplained ; 
as,  for  instance,  in  how  far  the  trainers  also  in- 
structed those  ephebi  who  were  not  in  training  for 
the  contests,  and  whether  they  were  paid  for  their 
services  by  the  State  or  by  each  pupil  individually. 
Afterwards,  at  any  rate,  the  ephebi  as  a  rule  only 
paid  a  fee  to  the  teacher  for  musical  instruction, 
while  the  gymnastic  teacher  seems  to  have  been  paid 
by  the  State. 

As  for  the  subjects  of  gymnastic  instruction,  these 
were  in  part  the  same  as  those  in  which  the  boys  had 
already  been  trained  hi  the  gymnastic  school,  but 
gradually  becoming  more  difficult,  while  others  were 
added  to  them  which  were  usually  excluded  from  the 
wrestling  school— namely,  boxing,  pancratium,  and 


124  f  GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 

pentathlum.  Besides  these  there  was  fencing  with 
heavy  weapons  (oirXo^a-^ia)  ;  the  fencing  was  not 
properly  connected  with  the  exercises  of  the 
gymnastic  tests,  but  it  formed  an  important  part 
of  the  military  education  of  the  ephebi,  and  was 
the  more  important  for  these  because,  when  they 
attained  their  majority  as  citizens,  they  had  to 
spend  several  years  in  a  kind  of  garrison  and  frontier 
service  (TrepwroXoi).  This  was  a  training  for  military 
service  which  the  ephebi,  like  all  other  citizens 
capable  of  bearing  arms,  had  to  perform  from 
their  twentieth  year  upwards,  and  they  generally 
served  the  State  for  two  years  before  in  the  manner 
above  mentioned.  Methodical  instruction  in  fencing 
was  originally  rather  looked  down  upon,  but  still  was 
accepted  in  the  curriculum  of  the  ephebi,  and  in  the 
inscriptions  the  fencing-master  (o-TrXo/ia^o?)  has  a 
regular  place  beside  the  other  masters.  Plato  also 
recommends  fencing  as  strengthening  for  the  body 
and  useful  in  case  of  war,  but  he  warns  people  to 
avoid  all  display  and  professionalism. 

In  the  course  of  time  other  exercises  in  arms  were 
added.  Throwing  the  spear  was  part  of  the  regular 
gymnastic  training  practised  even  by  boys  ;  and  in 
many  inscriptions  of  the  last  three  centuries  B.C. 
mention  is  made  of  special  teachers  (a/covrlcrrai). 
Shooting  with  bow  and  arrows  was  also  learnt,  and  a 
teacher  for  this  is  mentioned  in  these  inscriptions, 
as  well  as  one  who  gave  instruction  in  hurling  and  in 
the  use  of  machines  for  throwing.  Probably  these 
purely  military  exercises  were  not  part  of  the  regular 
gymnastic  curriculum.  The  same  may  be  said  of 
riding.  Every  youth  had  to  learn  riding,  for  he  had  to 
perform  his  frontier  service  on  horseback ;  and  at  the 
great  festivals,  especially  the  Panathenaea,  the  troops 


EDUCATION. 


125 


of  ephebi  on  horseback  formed  one  of  the  most  con- 
spicuous parts  of  the  procession,  and,  indeed,  they 
occupy  the  greater  part  of  the  relief  on  the  Parthenon 
frieze.  Fig.  76,  taken  from  a  vase  painting,  represents 
ephebi  racing  on  horseback ;  on 
the  left  stands  a  column,  no  doubt 
marking  the  limit  of  the  course. 
In  fact,  representations  on  vase 
paintings  of  ephebi  on  horseback 
are  very  common.  Still  we  cannot 
assume  that  regular  methodical 
instruction  in  riding  was  given  in 
the  older  period,  at  any  rate  not  as 
part  of  the  instruction  of  youths, 
though  even  in  the  time  of  Plato 
there  were  riding-masters  who 
seem  to  have  understood  how  to 
deal  with  difficult  horses.  At  a 
later  period  the  president  seems 
to  have  occupied  himself  with  in- 
struction in  riding,  but  we  know 
no  details  about  this.  The  Greeks 
used  neither  horse-shoes  nor  stir- 
rups, therefore,  unless  some  stone 
for  mounting  happened  to  be  at 
hand,  they  had  to  jump  on  to  their 
horses,  and  this  they  usually  did 
with  the  help  of  their  lances ; 


saddles  were  also  unknown,  but  horse-cloths  weie 
generally  used,  and  though  on  the  Parthenon  frieze 
and  the  vase  pictures  we  see  the  ephebi  riding 
without  these,  we  must  regard  this  as  an  artistic 
license,  like  the  absence  of  the  chiton  on  the 
same  pictures.  To  ride  thus  in  a  procession,  clad 
merely  in  the  chlamys,  without  any  under  garment, 


126  GREEK  LIFE   AT  HOME. 

on  a  horse  without  a  saddle,  would  appear  a  very  doubt- 
ful pleasure  even  to  the  most  hardened  Athenian  youths. 

As  regards  the  other  exercises  not  directly  in- 
cluded in  gymnastics,  we  may  state  that  swimming 
was  practised  from  earliest  youth,  and  was  regarded 
as  indispensable  for  everyone,  so  that  it  was  proverbi- 
ally said  of  an  absolutely  uneducated  person  that  he 
could  neither  swim  nor  say  his  alphabet.  The  most 
celebrated  swimmers  were  the  inhabitants  of  the 
island  of  Delos,  but  the  Athenians  were  also  distin- 
guished. There  were  no  special  swimming  masters ; 
children  learnt  to  swim  by  themselves  or  were  in- 
structed by  their  fathers. 

Inscriptions  also  tell  us  that  the  Attic  ephebi 
every  year  made  expeditions  by  sea  from  the  Peiraeus 
to  the  harbour  of  Munychia,  and  in  later  times  also 
to  Salamis,  and  these  apparently  partook  of  the 
nature  of  a  regatta.  Connected  with  these,  even  in 
the  Hellenistic  period,  were  uavd.1  contests,  so  that  at 
that  time  the  ephebi  must  have  had  some  knowledge 
of  the  elements  of  seafaring,  unless  these  sea-fights 
bore  the  character  of  naval  games,  and  were  con- 
ducted rather  for  amusement  than  for  serious  military 
purposes ;  and  this  is  the  more  probable  as  at  that 
period,  when  Athens  had  long  ago  lost  its  political 
importance,  actual  preparations  for  naval  warfare  had 
no  special  aim  for  young  Athenians. 

Finally  there  were,  even  in  the  earlier  centuries, 
exercises  in  marching  in  the  neighbouring  country. 
These  were  partly  connected  with  the  military  posi- 
tion of  the  ephebi  as  protectors  of  the  frontier,  and 
they  partly  aimed  at  extending  their  knowledge  of 
localities  as  well  as  giving  practice  in  marching  and 
riding.  As  they  sometimes  had  to  march  out  in 
heavy  armour,  and  generally  bivouacked  in  hastily- 


EDUCATION.  127 

pitched  tents,  sometimes  even  in  the  open  air,  these 
marches  supplied  an  excellent  opportunity  for  growing 
accustomed  to  the  fatigues  of  military  life.  It  is  clear 
from  all  this  that  the  instruction  of  the  ephebi  bore 
a  half-gymnastic,  half-military  character,  and  thus 
aimed  chiefly  at  physical  development ;  yet,  on  the 
other  hand,  many  opportunities  were  given  the  young 
men  for  further  intellectual  development.  We 
cannot,  of  course,  determine  whether  the  majority 
of  them  took  advantage  of  this,  for  undoubtedly  it 
was  optional,  and  not  immediately  connected  with 
their  necessary  training.  However,  in  the  second 
century  B.C.  the  custom  prevailed  of  letting  the  presi- 
dents of  the  various  gymnasia  at  Athens  see  that  they 
were  regularly  attended. 

As  regards  the  subjects  of  this  more  advanced 
instruction,  opportunity  was  certainly  given  for 
further  study  in  arithmetic,  geometry-,  and  astron- 
omy, as  well  as  music  and  drawing.  After  the 
fourth  century  the  various  schools  of  philosophy 
which  arose  at  that  time,  began  to  take  a  very 
important  place  in  the  intellectual  development  of 
these  youths.  As  early  as  the  fifth  century  the 
Sophists  gave  instruction  to  young  and  older  men  for 
payment;  but  after  the  tune  of  Plato  the  higher 
instruction  was  regularly  organised  and  also  given 
free  of  charge,  and  from  this  time  forward  it  was 
closely  connected  with  the  training  of  the  ephebi, 
since  the  gymnasia  destined  for  gymnastic  teaching 
were  also  used  for  instruction  in  philosophy.  Plato 
and  his  school  taught,  as  is  well  known,  in  the 
Academy ;  Aristotle  and  the  Peripatetics  in  the 
Lyceum;  and  Antisthenes  and  the  Cynic  school  in 
the  Cynosarges ;  the  Stoics  also  originally  taught  at 
the  Lyceum,  but  afterwards  in  the  Stoa  Poikile  (the 


128  GREEK    LIFE    AT    HOME. 

"  painted  portico  ")  near  the  old  Agora ;  at  Athens 
the  Epicurean  school  only  was  not  connected  with 
any  existing  gymnasium.  This  connection,  however, 
between  these  schools  and  the  gymnasia  was  merely 
an  external  one,  and  really  meant  that  the  ground 
and  gardens  belonging  to  them  were  situated  in  the 
domain  of  these  special  gymnasia.  However,  the  fact 
that  the  schools  possessed  a  fixed  place  under  the 
direction  of  the  head  for  the  time  being  did  very 
much  to  establish  their  stability.  We  must  not 
regard  these  philosophical  schools  as  higher  schools 
in  the  modern  sense ;  though  each  school  had  a  head 
who  had  the  management  in  his  own  hands,  and  at 
his  death  appointed  a  successor,  yet  there  was  no 
question  of  an  organised  scheme  of  studies  or  of 
instruction  regularly  occupying  certain  hours  of  the 
day,  or,  indeed,  of  any  of  the  conditions  which  could 
be  compared,  with  our  modern  universities,  at  any 
rate  not  before  the  period  of  the  Roman  Empire.  In 
the  fourth  century  and  in  the  Hellenistic  period  the 
instruction  merely  consisted  in  a  discourse  given  by 
the  head,  or  a  disputation  with  his  scholars,  by  means 
of  which  the  various  branches  of  philosophy  and  ethics 
were  treated.  Practical  instruction  in  rhetoric  was 
also  given,  sometimes  by  philosophers,  but  oftener  by 
celebrated  rhetoricians,  such  as  Isocrates,  and  this 
training  lasted  several  years.  Very  often  young  men 
prepared  themselves  in  this  way  for  their  future 
career  as  statesmen  or  lawyers ;  and  in  the  Hellenistic 
period  the  study  of  philological  grammar  began  to 
gain  importance,  especially  in  the  schools  of  Alex- 
andria, Pergamum,  and  Antioch,  to  which  places  cele- 
brated teachers  attracted  numerous  pupils.  These 
studies  were  in  no  way  connected  with  the  regular 
training  of  ephebi 


EDUCATION  129 

Generally  speaking,  we  may  say  that  the  main 
object  of  the  education  of  the  youths  in  the  best  period 
of  Greek  antiquity  was  to  train  a  citizen,  capable  in 
body  and  mind,  who  should  be  able  to  serve  his 
country  as  well  in  war  as  in  peace,  in  a  public  as  in  a 
private  capacity,  while  all  special  development  of  any 
branch  of  learning,  except,  of  course,  the  gymnastic 
element,  was  excluded.  This  is  the  more  comprehen- 
sible since  Greek  antiquity  was  unacquainted  with  the 
higher  professions  in  our  sense  of  the  word. 

There  is  far  less  to  be  said  about  the  education  of 
girls,  since  no  regular  instruction  was  given.  The 
sphere  to  which  women  were  confined  in  all  the  Greek 
states  was  the  household,  and  their  position,  especially 
in  the  Ionic  states,  was  so  distinctly  a  subordinate  one 
that  it  was  not  considered  desirable  to  give  them  also 
regular  teaching.  In  consequence  there  were  no  girls' 
schools ;  girls  belonging  to  the  better  classes  were 
taught  a  little  reading  and  writing  by  their  mothers 
or  nurses — the  women  of  the  lower  classes  did  not 
learn  even  this — and,  with  the  addition  of  some  super- 
ficial knowledge  of  religion  and  mythology,  such  as 
could  be  acquired  from  stories  or  by  reading  the 
poets,  this  constituted  all  the  intellectual  develop- 
ment which  fell  to  the  lot  of  the  girls.  Sometimes  a 
little  musical  instruction  was  also  given,  and  even  in 
the  Ionic  states  there  were  some  exceptions,  since  we 
hear  of  women  of  higher  intellectual  development. 
As  a  rule,  it  was  only  the  hetaerae,  whose  freer  inter- 
course with  men  enabled  them  to  gain  from  them 
more  extensive  literary  culture  ;  and  as  a  consequence 
we  find  that  even  men  of  high  intellectual  powers 
chose  to  associate  with  these  persons,  and  that  at 
Athens,  at  any  rate,  the  men  who  desired  the  stimulus 
of  intercourse  with  intellectual  women,  were  bound  to 
r 


130  GREEK  LIFE  AT  HOME. 

seek  it  from  this  class.  The  fault  was,  of  course,  their 
own,  since  the  semi-Oriental  system  of  shutting  off 
women  from  the  outer  world  and  degrading  them 
into  mere  managers  of  the  household,  necessarily 
lowered  the  average  culture  of  women.  Still,  it  some- 
times happened  that  a  man  who  had  married  a  young 
open-minded  girl  contrived  to  raise  her  up  intellec- 
tually to  himself,  and  to  develop  her  powers,  as 
Xenophon  has  shown  in  his  Oikonomikos. 

On  the  other  hand,  Greek  women  appear  to  have 
been  experienced  in  feminine  arts— such  as  spinning 
and  weaving,  sewing  and  embroidery,  accomplish- 
ments which  they  certainly  learnt  from  their  mothers 
and  nurses.  No  regular  instruction  was  given  in 
them,  or  in  cooking,  an  art  with  which  Greek  women 
were  undoubtedly  well  acquainted.  This  system  of 
educating  girls  did  not,  however,  meet  with  general 
approval,  for  we  find  that  Plato,  in  his  "  Laws,"  pre- 
scribes regular  school  instruction  for  girls  in  the 
subjects  required  for  women,  and  also  musical  and 
even  gymnastic  training.  These  principles  were, 
however,  never  practically  realised  at  Athens,  though 
elsewhere  the  conditions  may  have  been  different, 
since  an  inscription  from  Teos  of  somewhat  late  date 
makes  express  mention  of  instruction  given  in  common 
to  boys  and  girls. 

It  was  a  natural  consequence  of  the  very  different 
position  occupied  by  women  at  Athens  and  Sparta, 
that  the  latter  had  a  very  different  education  from 
the  Athenian  women.  Though  the  young  Spartan 
maidens  did  not,  like  the  boys,  associate  together  in 
clubs,  but  remained  with  their  families,  yet  the  State 
took  cognisance  of  these  also,  and  especially  prescribed 
for  them  gymnastic  training,  which  was  in  essentials 
the  same  a§  that  given  to  the  boys,  though  with 


Fio.  77. 


132  GREEK  LIFE   AT  HOME. 

corresponding  modifications,  in  order  to  develop  and 
strengthen  their  bodies.  Of  course,  they  had  their 
own  special  schools  for  this  purpose,  distinct  from 
those  of  the  boys,  where  they  were  instructed  in 
running,  jumping,  wrestling,  throwing  the  spear  and 
quoit,  as  well  as  in  several  exercises  in  running  and 
leaping,  which  were  partly  of  a  military  character, 
partly  allied  with  dancing.  For  this  purpose  they 
wore  a  "special  dress ;  Fig.  77  shows  us  a  female  racer 
from  Elis.  The  statue  which  is  in  the  Vatican  is  in 
the  ancient  style,  and  represents  a  robust  girl  clad  in 
a  short  chiton,  with  a  girdle  descending  only  a  little 
way  below  the  hips,  and  leaving  the  right  breast 
exposed.  This  special  dress  used  for  gymnastic  exer- 
cises must  not,  however,  be  confused  with  that  in 
which  the  Spartan  ladies  usually  appeared,  though 
this,  too,  as  already  stated  (page  39),  differed  from  the 
"ordinary  dress  of  Greek  girls.  In  spite,  however,  of 
this  dress,  and  of  the  fact  that  youths  and  maidens, 
who  in  the  Ionic  states  scarcely  ever  met  each  other 
except  at  religious  festivals,  were  brought  into  frequent 
contact  at  Sparta,  especially  at  public  contests,  games, 
choruses,  etc.,  the  Spartan  women  bore  an  unstained 
reputation.  The  system  of  physical  exercises  pro- 
duced healthy  women,  strongly  built,  with  blooming 
complexions ;  and  it  also  implanted  and  developed  in 
them  the  manly  and  determined  spirit  for  which  the 
Laconian  women  and  mothers  were  distinguished. 
Yet,  even  at  Sparta,  there  was  no  question  of  intel- 
lectual training  for  the  girls ;  and,  indeed,  as  we  have 
already  seen,  even  hi  the  case  of  the  boys,  it  was  re- 
garded as  far  less  important  than  physical  education. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

MARRIAGE   AND   WOMEN. 

Love  amongst  the  Greeks— Engagements— Marriage  Rites  and  Cere- 
monies— The  Laconian  Custom —Marriage  in  the  Doric  States— 
The  Mode  of  Life  of  the  Athenian  Women — Their  Personal 
Hahits— The  Helaerae. 

THE  boyhood  of  the  young  Athenian  was  occupied 
by  school  and  play ;  his  youth  was  spent  in 
gymnastic  exercises,  and  sometimes  also  in  scientific 
studies  and  military  labours.  When  he  attained  his 
majority  as  a  citizen,  he  acquired  the  right  of  ex- 
ercising his  political  and  civic  duties,  taking  part 
in  popular  assemblies  and  other  public  gatherings ; 
but  apparently  the  young  people  did  not  make  much 
use  of  these  privileges  when  they  first  entered  on 
their  political  majority.  Besides  these  occupations 
there  were  many  others  to  draw  them  away  from 
serious  duties  :  pleasant  intercourse  with  companions, 
drinking  bouts,  and  also  the  charms  of  pretty  hetaerac. 
who  were  easily  won  to  regard  with  favour  anyone 
possessing  a  tolerably  well-filled  purse.  And  this  was 
all  the  compensation  they  had  for  exclusion  from  the 
society  of  the  daughters  of  citizens ;  for,  with  the 
exception  of  the  hetaerae,  and  the  flute  and  cithara 
players  who  performed  at  the  banquets,  women 
played  no  part  in  social  intercourse  at  Athens.  There 
were  but  few  occasions  when  the  girls  left  the  close 
confinement  of  the  women's  apartments  for  any  kind 
of  publicity,  and  this  custom,  which  resembled  the 
Oriental,  and  was  probably  introduced  by  the  Ionic 


134  GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 

Greeks  from  Asia  Minor,  while  the  Doric  practice 
was  very  different,  caused  one  of  the  greatest  wants 
of  Attic  life.  This  is  brought  forcibly  before  us  in 
the  comedies  of  the  fourth  century,  the  so-called 
"  New  Attic  Comedy,"  in  which  the  basis  was  usually 
a  love  -story,  which  our  modern  ideas  would  regard  as 
purely  sensual,  or  even  immoral ;  while  love,  in  the 
best  sense  of  the  word,  is  never  represented.  We 
must  not,  on  this  account,  suppose  that  the  Greeks 
were  entirely  unacquainted  with  that  kind  of  affection 
which  is  based  on  real  inclination,  similarity  of  mind, 
and  recognition  of  intellectual  virtues ;  in  fact,  the 
contrast  often  emphasised  by  poets  and  artists  be- 
tween Aphrodite  Urania,  as  the  type  of  heavenly 
intellectual  love,  and  Aphrodite  Pandemos,  as  that  of 
sensuous  love,  must  convince  us  of  the  contrary; 
while  Greek  literature  also  supplies  many  examples 
of  pure  love  in  the  truest  sense  of  the  word,  though  a 
strong  admixture  of  the  sensuous  element  was  natural, 
even  here,  to  a  passionate  southern  race. 

It  was,  however,  quite  unusual  for  such  attach- 
ment to  begin  before  marriage,  since  opportunities  for 
this  were  wanting.  But  often,  in  spite  of  the  conven- 
tional mode  by  which  marriages  were  arranged,  this 
attachment  was  developed  after  marriage,  and  we 
must  not  fall  into  the  mistake  of  judging  married 
life  in  Greece,  or  especially  at  Athens,  only  from 
the  greatly  exaggerated  descriptions  of  Aristophanes, 
or  the  sarcastic  tirades  of  misogynists  like  Euripides. 
The  great  majority  of  the  women  were  not  so  super- 
ficial or  so  quarrelsome  as  these  poets  have  represented 
them,  nor  the  young  men,  as  a  rule,  so  vicious  or  hostile 
to  marriage  as  they  are  depicted  in  the  majority  of 
the  New  Attic  Comedies. 

It  is  true  enough,  of  course,  that  marriage  was 


MARRIAGE   AND  WOMEN.  135 

usually  a  matter  of  contract  between  the  fathers  or 
guardians  of  the  young  pair,  and  not  the  consequence 
of  affection  between  the  youth  and  maiden  ;  and  this  it 
is  which  we  see  in  the  comedies  of  Plautus  and  Terence, 
who  copied  Greek  originals.  Very  often  the  fathers 
agreed  to  a  marriage  between  their  children ;  sometimes 
the  arrangements  were  made  by  a  woman  (Trpofjuvrjcrrpia) 
acquainted  with  the  circumstances  of  the  citizens' 
families,  who  made  a  kind  of  business  of  arranging 
marriages.  An  important  point  was  equality  of  for- 
tune ;  of  course,  both  parties  had  to  be  full  citizens, 
but  degrees  of  relationship  do  not  seem  to  have  been 
any  hindrance.  The  girl's  consent  was  not  asked  at 
all ;  it  was  a  matter  of  course  that  she  should  accept 
the  husband  chosen  by  her  parents,  and,  as  she  had 
no  other  male  acquaintances,  objections  can  very 
seldom  have  been  made.  Generally  she  was  only 
acquainted  with  the  husband  destined  for  her  by 
seeing  him  hastily  on  her  walks  or  at  festivals.  The 
destined  bridegroom  is  more  likely  to  have  made 
objections  if  the  appointed  bride  did  not  please  him  ; 
yet  here,  too,  as  a  rule,  the  father  could  have  his  way, 
since  his  son  was  entirely  in  his  power,  unless  it  so 
happened  that  he  earned  his  own  living  by  any  pro- 
fession, which  was  seldom  the  case  among  the  better 
classes.  The  fathers  or  guardians  then  concluded  the 
contract  of  engagement,  in  which  the  bride's  dowry 
was  fixed  and  special  arrangements  made  for  com- 
munity of  goods,  return  of  the  dowry  in  case  of  a 
divorce,  etc.  The  Homeric  custom,  by  which  it  was 
the  bridegroom  who  brought  gifts  in  order  to  win  a 
bride,  while  the  father  gave  his  daughter  to  the  one 
who  promised  the  richest  bridal  presents,  had  early 
falleninto  disuse,  and  probably  even  in  theheroic  period 
it  was  only  customary  among  noble  families.  In  the 


136  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

historic  period  a  dowry  was  regarded  as  an  indis- 
pensable basis  for  marriage  :  so  much  so  that  daughters 
or  sisters  of  poor  citizens  were  often  endowed  at  the 
expense  of  generous  friends,  or  poor  orphan  girls  by 
their  guardians ;  sometimes  the  State  even  gave  a 
dowry  to  the  daughters  of  citizens  who  had  deserved 
well  of  their  country.  The  engagement  itself  was,  as 
a  rule,  a  legal  act,  which  followed  the  private  agree- 
ment between  the  fathers,  and  was  considered  an 
essential  preliminary  to  a  legal  marriage  ;  it  was  not, 
however,  a  general  custom  to  celebrate  this  act  in  a 
social  manner  by  a  banquet.  As  is  usual  in  southern 
countries,  the  girls  married  very  young,  sometimes 
even  at  the  age  of  fifteen,  or  earlier ;  but  the  period 
between  their  sixteenth  and  twentieth  years  was 
probably  the  usual  one  for  marriage.  There  seems  to 
have  been  no  distinct  limit  of  age  for  men,  but 
probably  the  years  between  twenty  and  thirty  were 
those  in  which  most  of  them  entered  the  married 
state.  We  do  not  know  how  long  a  period  usually 
elapsed  between  the  engagement  and  the  marriage ; 
probably  there  was  no  definite  custom,  but  we  know 
that  very  often  the  wedding  immediately  followed  the 
engagement.  We  are  likewise  unable  to  say  whether, 
in  the  case  of  a  long  engagement,  the  bride  and  bride- 
groom had  any  opportunities  for  meeting  each  other. 
The  actual  wedding  usually  took  place  in  the  winter, 
and  a  favourite  time  was  the  month  Gamelion  (the 
end  of  January  and  beginning  of  February),  which 
hence  received  its  name.  Certain  days  regarded  as 
auspicious  were  generally  chosen,  and  the  waning 
moon  was  specially  avoided.  It  is  curious,  when  we 
compare  our  own  and  the  Roman  customs,  to  note 
that,  though  the  wedding  received  a  religious  charac- 
ter by  sacrifices  and  other  solemn  ceremonies,  it  was 


MARRIAGE   AND   WOMEN.  137 

not  of  itself  regarded  as  a  religious  or  legal  act.  The 
legality  of  the  marriage  depended  on  the  engagement, 
and  the  religious  consecration  was  not  given  by  a 
priest  (who  took  no  part,  as  a  rule,  in  the  wedding 
ceremony),  but  by  the  marriage  gods,  who  were  invoked 
by  prayer  and  sacrifice,  more  especiaUy  Zeus  and  Hera, 
Apollo,  Artemis,  and  Peitho,  the  goddess  of  persua- 
sion. We  must  now  endeavour  to  form  an  idea  of 
an  Athenian  wedding  ceremony,  as  described  by 
Greek  writers. 

Among  the  ceremonies  bearing  a  religious 
character  which  preceded  the  wedding,  an 'important 
part  was  played  by  the  bath.  Both  bride  and  bride- 
groom took  a  bath  either  on  the  morning  of  the 
wedding-day  or  the  day  before,  for  which  the  water 
was  brought  from  a  river  or  from  some  spring 
regarded  as  specially  sacred,  as  at  Athens  the 
spring  Callirhoe  (or  Enneacrunos),  at  Thebes  the 
Ismenus;  and  this  water  had  to  be  fetched  by  a 
boy  who  was  some  near  relation ;  sometimes,  however, 
we  hear  of  maidens  sent  to  fetch  it.  The  bride  also 
offered  libations  and  gifts — as,  for  instance,  her  toys, 
locks  of  hair,  and  the  like — to  one  of  the  marriage 
goddesses.  More  important  was  the  sacrifice  generally 
celebrated  on  the  wedding-day,  but  we  know  few 
details  about  the  mode  of  its  performance.  It  was 
offered  to  the  marriage  deities  mentioned  above, 
either  to  all  collectively  or  singly ;  the  families  of 
both  bridegroom  and  bride  took  part  in  the  ceremony. 
We  do  not  know  of  any  special  directions  as  to  the 
animals  to  be  sacrificed ;  it  appears  to  have  been  the 
custom  to  remove  the  gall  of  the  victim,  and  not  burn 
it  with  the  rest  of  the  inner  parts,  and  this  was  sup- 
posed to  indicate  symbolically  that  all  bitterness  must 
be  absent  from  marriage. 


138  GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 

Most  sacrifices  connected  with  the  slaughtering  of 
animals  were  followed  by  a  festive  banquet,  at  which 
the  flesh  of  the  victims  constituted  the  principal  dish, 
and  thus  the  wedding  sacrifice  also  was  followed  by  a 
feast,  which  was  generally  held  at  the  house  of  the 
bride's  father.  As  this  must,  according  to  custom, 
have  taken  place  in  the  afternoon,  we  may  assume 
that  the  other  wedding  ceremonies  had  been  per- 
formed in  the  morning.  The  wedding  banquet  was 
one  of  the  few  occasions  when  men  and  women  dined 
together ;  this  generally  occurred  only  in  most  inti- 
mate family  circles,  but  not  when  guests  were  present. 
The  luxury  of  these  wedding  banquets  seems  to  have 
increased  so  much  that  the  State  was  at  last  obliged 
to  limit  the  number  of  guests  by  law.  Plato  would 
not  have  allowed  husband  and  wife  to  invite  more 
than  five  friends  and  five  relations  each — that  is,  twenty 
in  all — on  any  occasion,  whether  a  wedding  or  other- 
wise ;  and  a  statute  of  the  fourth  century  B.C.  makes 
thirty  the  maximum  limit  for  weddings,  and  in- 
structs the  officials  who  had  charge  of  the  women 
(ywaiKovo/Moi)  to  see  that  this  rule  is  not  infringed ; 
and  they  seem  to  have  carried  out  their  office  so 
strictly  that  on  these  occasions  they  often  entered  the 
house,  counted  the  guests,  and  turned  out  all  who 
exceeded  the  legal  number.  At  the  banquet,  as  well 
as  at  the  sacrifice  which  preceded  it,  the  bride 
appeared  in  all  her  bridal  adornments.  Some  female 
relation  or  friend  who  took  the  part  of  a  modern  brides- 
maid (w^evrpla)  undertook  to  deck  the  bride  and 
anoint  her  with  costly  essences,  and  dress  her  in 
clothes  of  some  fine,  probably  coloured,  material, 
while  special  shoes,  ribbons,  and  flowers  in  the  hair 
svere  regarded  as  important,  as  well  as  tho  veil,  which 
\vas  the  distinctive  mark  of  the  hrido,  :m;l  covered  the 


MARRIAGE   AND  WOMEN.  139 

head,  falling  low  down  and  partly  covering  the  face. 
The  bridegroom,  too,  appeared  in  a  festive  white  dress, 
which  differed  from  his  ordinary  clothing  chiefly  by  the 
fineness  of  material ;  he,  too,  wore  a  wreath,  as  did  all 
the  other  guests  at  the  banquet,  but  certain  flowers, 
supposed  to  be  of  fortunate  omen,  were  worn  by  the 
bride  and  bridegroom.  We  do  not  hear  of  any  special 
dishes  supplied  at  weddings,  but  cakes,  to  which  the 
Greeks  assigned  a  symbolical  connection  with  festive 
occasions,  played  an  important  part,  and  in  particular 
cakes  of  sesame  found  a  place  at  the  wedding  banquet. 
A  special  custom  peculiar  to  Athens  was  for  a  boy,  both 
of  whose  parents  must  be  alive,  to  go  round  wreathed 
with  hawthorn  or  acorns  carrying  a  basket  of  cakes, 
singing,  "I  fled  from  misfortune,  I  found  a  better 
lot" 

When  the  banquet  was  concluded,  according  to 
custom,  by  libation  and  prayers,  and  the  night  began 
to  set  in,  the  bride  was  conducted  home  to  the  house 
of  the  bridegroom.  It  was  only  among  very  poor 
people  that  the  bride  went  on  foot  in  this  procession ; 
if  it  was  at  ah1  possible,  she  took  her  place  between 
the  bridegroom  and  the  groomsman  {irapavvfji^o^  or 
Trapo^o?),  who  was  a  near  relation  or  intimate  Mend 
of  the  bridegroom,  in  a  carriage  drawn  by  oxen  or 
horses.  Ah1  the  other  persons  who  took  part  in  the 
procession — that  is,  all  who  had  been  at  the  banquet, 
and  probably  many  others  as  well — went  on  foot 
behind  the  carriage  to  the  sound  of  harps  and  flutes, 
while  one  went  on  in  front  as  leader.  The  bride's 
mother  occupied  the  place  of  honour  in  the  pro- 
cession, carrying  in  her  hand  the  bridal  torches, 
kindled  at  the  family  hearth,  and  thus  the  bride  took 
the  sacred  fire  of  her  home  to  her  new  dwelling.  On 
this  account  the  ancients  represented  the  god  of 


140  GREEK   LIFE  AT  HOME. 

Marriage,  Hymen,  with  a  torch  as  symbol  If  other 
members  of  the  procession  also  carried  torches,  that 
was  only  in  accordance  with  the  custom  of  using 
them  when  going  out  in  the  evening ;  it  was  only  the 
torches  of  the  bride's  mother  that  had  any  symbolical 
meaning.  Meantime  the  bride's  attendants  sang  a 
bridal  song,  while  the  procession  moved  through  the 
streets  to  the  bridegroom's  house.  This  song  is  called 
Hymenaeus,  and  the  following  is  found  at  the  end 
of  the  Birds  of  Aristophanes  : — 

"  Jupiter,  that  god  sublime, 
When  the  Fates  in  former  time 
Matched  him  with  the  Queen  of  Heaven 
At  a  solemn  banquet  given, 
Such  a  feast  was  held  above, 
And  the  charming  god  of  Love, 
Being  present  in  command, 
As  a  bridegroom  took  his  stand 
With  the  golden  reins  in  hand. 
Hymen,  Hymen,  Ho  !  "  * 

The  bridegroom's  mother,  also  carrying  torches, 
awaited  the  procession  by  the  bridegroom's  door, 
which  was  festively  decked  with  wreaths.  A  shower 
of  all  manner  of  sweetmeats  was  poured  on  the 
bridal  pair,  partly  in  jest  and  partly  to  symbolise 
the  rich  blessing  invoked  upon  them ;  nor  was 
the  serious  work  forgotten  which  now  awaited  the 
young  wife  in  her  new  position  :  a  pestle  for  bruising 
the  corn  grams  was  hung  up  near  the  bridal  chamber, 
to  remind  her  of  her  duties  as  head  of  the  household, 
and  it  was  an  ancient  Athenian  custom  for  the  bride 
herself  to  carry  some  household  implement  in  the 
procession,  as,  for  instance,  a  sieve  or  a  vessel  for 
roasting.  Another  symbolical  custom,  supposed  also 

*  Translated  by  J.  Hookham  Frere. 


MARRIAGE   AND   WOMEN.  141 

to  date  from  an  ordinance  of  Solon,  was  for  the  bride, 
after  her  arrival  in  her  new  home,  to  eat  a  quince, 
which,  like  the  pomegranate,  was  supposed  to  be  a 
symbol  of  fruitfulness. 

The  bridegroom's  mother  then  attended  the  bridal 
pair  to  the  tlialamus  or  bridal  chamber,  where  the 
richly-decked,  flower-strewn  marriage  couch  was  pre- 
pared. When  all  the  guests  had  gone  away  the 
bridegroom  locked  the  door,  and  while  the  bride 
unveiled  herself  to  him  for  the  first  time,  the  youths 
and  maidens  outside  sang  another  song — either  a  few 
verses  of  the  Hymenaeus  or  an  Epithalamium,  accom- 
panied with  praises  of  the  married  pair,  and  also 
doubtless  by  some  jesting  personal  allusions.  The 
Epithalamium  of  Helen,  in  Theocritus,  begins  thus: — 

"  Slumberest  so  soon,  sweet  bridegroom  ? 

Art  thou  over-fond  of  sleep  ? 
Or  hast  thou  leaden-weighted  limbs  ? 

Or  hadst  thou  drunk  too  deep 
When  thou  didst  fling  thee  to  thy  lair? 

Betimes  thou  shouldst  have  sped, 
If  sleep  were  all  thy  purpose, 

Unto  thy  bachelor's  bed, 
And  left  her  in  her  mother's  arms 

To  nestle  and  to  play, 
A  girl  among  her  girlish  mates, 

Till  deep  into  the  day  : — 
For  not  alone  for  this  night, 

Nor  for  the  next  alone, 
But  through  the  days  and  through  the  years 

Thou  hast  her  for  thine  own." 

And  it  ends  thus : — 

"  Sleep  on,  and  love  and  longing 

Breathe  in  each  other's  breast ; 
But  fail  not,  when  the  morn  returns, 

To  rouse  you  from  your  rest : 
With  dawn  shall  we  be  stirring, 


142  GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 

When,  lifting  high  his  fair 
And  feathered  neck,  the  earliest  bird 
To  clarion  to  the  dawn  is  heard. 
O  God  of  brides  and  bridals, 

Sing  '  Happy,  happy  pair  ! '"  * 

Very  often  the  young  men,  before  setting  out  home- 
wards, amused  themselves  by  knocking  and  banging  at 
the  door  of  the  bridal  chamber,  though  a  friend  of  the 
bridegroom's  kept  watch  there,  ostensibly  to  prevent 
the  maidens  from  going  in  to  their  married  comrade. 
The  last  lines  of  the  above -quoted  epithalamium 
show  that  the  chorus  sometimes  returned  early  next 
morning  to  greet  the  pair  on  their  awakening. 

On  the  morning  after  the  wedding  the  newly- 
married  pair  received  visits  and  congratulations  from 
their  relations  and  friends.  The  husband  presented 
his  young  wife  with  gifts,  and  so  also  did  the  visitors, 
but  this  ceremony  sometimes  did  not  take  place  till 
the  second  day  after  the  wedding ;  for  a  curious 
custom  existed  (only  at  Athens,  however)  for  the 
husband  on  the  day  after  the  wedding  to  move  into 
his  father-in-law's  house,  and  there  spend  a  night 
apart  from  his  wife ;  she  then  sent  him  a  new  gar- 
ment, whereupon  he  returned  to  her.  With  the 
wedding  presents  the  dowry  was  often  presented, 
along  with  various  objects  belonging  to  the  trousseau, 
such  as  jars,  ointments,  sandals,  toilette  implements, 
etc.  The  wedding  festivities  were  then  concluded  by 
a  banquet  given  either  by  the  bridegroom's  father  hi 
his  house  or  by  the  bridegroom  himself;  but  it  does 
not  appear  that  there  were  any  women  present  on  this 
occasion.  Still,  this  banquet  was  of  a  certain  im- 
portance for  the  young  wife ;  at  Athens  it  was  con- 
nected with  her  formal  admission  among  the  clansmen 

•  Translated  by  S.  G,  Calverley. 


MARRIAGE   AND   WOMEN. 


143 


to  whom  the  bride  now  be- 
longed by  her  marriage.  Every 
tribe  (<f>v\rj)  at  Athens  was 
divided  into  three  clans 
(QpuTpai),  each  of  these  into 
thirty  households  (761/77) ;  the 
members  of  the  clans  examined 
into  the  purity  of  descent  of 
citizens,  and  every  new-born 
child  had  to  be  entered  in 
their  register.  This  ceremony 
gave  a  sort  of  official,  or  at 
any  rate  public,  legitimation 
to  the  marriage. 

Among  the  monuments 
which  have  been  preserved  to 
us,  there  are  several  which 
refer  to  marriage;  but,  as  a 
rule,  they  adhere  to  a  mytho- 
logical form,  and  do  not  re- 
present a  real  scene  from  daily 
life.  Thus,  for  instance,  we 
often  see  the  bridal  pair  driv- 
ing in  a  car,  but  those  who 
attend  them  are  the  Marriage 
gods  in  person,  especially 
Apollo  and  Artemis,  and  when 
the  presentation  of  marriage 
gifts  to  the  newly- wedded  pair 
is  represented,  it  is  usually  the 
celebrated  couple,  Peleus  and 
Thetis,  that  we  see  depicted, 
while  those  who  offer  them 
the  gifts  are  gods,  such  as 
Hephaestus  and  the  Horae,etc. 


144  GREEK  LIFE   AT   HOME. 

The  vase  painting,  which  is  here  given  as  Fig.  78, 
also  bears  a  mythological  character,  though  it,  no 
doubt,  adheres  very  closely  to  the  forms  of  reality.  It 
represents  the  arrival  of  the  bride  at  the  bridegroom's 
house.  The  latter  stands  leaning  on  a  spear  (which, 
however,  must  be  an  heroic  attribute,  and  not  cus- 
tomary at  marriages  in  the  historic  period)  before  the 
door  of  his  house.  On  the  left  comes  the  bride,  who 
is  recognised  by  the  veil  covering  her  head.  She  ap- 
proaches with  a  hesitating  step,  and  the  bridesmaid 
attending  her  is  pushing  her  gently  forward  with  both 
hands,  while  the  groomsman,  who  goes  before  her, 
holds  her  left  hand.  Apollo,  with  his  laurel  staff,  and 
Artemis,  with  quiver  and  bow,  are  gazing  sympa- 
thetically at  the  bride ;  in  front  of  them  a  woman, 
either  the  match-maker  or  the  bride's  mother,  holds 
out  both  her  arms  to  welcome  the  bridegroom. 

Of  course,  marriage  customs  differed  considerably 
in  the  various  Greek  states,  as  is  proved  by  many 
allusions.  Strangest  of  all  seems  the  Laconian 
custom,  which  points  clearly  to  marriage  by  capture, 
a  custom  of  great  antiquity,  mentioned  in  many 
legends  (as,  for  instance,  that  of  the  Dioscuri  and  the 
daughters  of  Leucippus).  No  mention  is  made  here  of 
a  real  marriage  celebration ;  the  bridegroom  carried  off 
his  bride,  who  must,  however,  have  previously  been 
betrothed  to  him  by  her  father,  from  her  parents' 
house,  and  in  his  own  dwelling  handed  her  over  to 
the  charge  of  some  middle-aged  woman  (vvpfavrpia), 
who  was  either  a  relation  or  an  intimate  friend. 
During  his  absence  at  the  common  dining  table,  to 
which  all  Spartan  citizens  and  youths  went  every 
day,  this  woman  cut  off  the  bride's  hair,  dressed  her 
in  male  dress,  with  men's  shoes,  and  left  her  lying  in 
the  dark  on  some  straw.  Then,  when  the  bridegroom 


MARRIAGE   AND   WOMEN.  145 

returned,  he  unloosed  the  bride's  girdle  and  carried 
her  in  his  arms  to  the  bridal  chamber.  Curiously 
enough,  the  appearance  of  secrecy  was  kept  up  for 
some  time  longer ;  the  young  husband  continued  to 
live  with  the  other  young  citizens,  and  only  visited 
his  wife  occasionally  in  secret.  Similar  practices  pre- 
vailed also  at  Crete.  We  do  not,  however,  know  how 
long  these  strange  customs  continued  in  the  Doric 
states. 

In  considering  the  position  of  women  in  relation 
to  men  and  in  the  household,  we  must  allow  for  the 
differences  between  the  heroic  and  historic  periods, 
and  also  between  the  Doric  and  the  Ionic-Attic 
states.  Of  the  Aeolian  states  we  know  very  little. 
In  the  heroic  period,  as  far  as  we  can  gather  from 
the  Homeric  poems,  women  occupied  an  important 
position,  in  many  respects  equal  to  that  of  the  men. 
Heroic  times,  like  the  rest  of  Greek  antiquity,  were 
only  acquainted  with  monogamy ;  polygamy  is  an 
entirely  Oriental  custom.  Still,  it  was  by  no  means 
unusual  in  olden  times  for  princes  and  nobles  to  have 
a  number  of  concubines,  who  were  either  slaves  or 
female  captives,  besides  their  own  lawful  wives,  who 
were  sprung  of  noble  family.  In  fact,  the  idea  of 
conjugal  fidelity  held  good  only  for  the  female  portion 
of  the  population,  while  the  men  were  absolutely  free 
to  act  as  they  pleased.  Undoubtedly  thore  were  cases 
in  which  husband  and  wife  were  so  well  suited  to- 
gether that  the  men  resisted  all  temptations  to  in- 
fidelity ;  among  these  we  may  include  Hector,  Laertes, 
and  Odysseus,  in  spite  of  the  amours  of  this  last  with 
Circe  and  Calypso.  Whenever  we  obtain  a  closer  in- 
sight into  the  conditions  of  married  life,  as  in  the  case 
of  Hector  and  Andromache,  Odysseus  and  Penel  po, 
the  impression  received  is  a  favourable  one.  There  is 


146  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

even  a  vein  of  true  affection  perceptible,  which  is 
generally  absent  from  ancient  conceptions  of  marriage. 

In  the  heroic  age  women  were  chiefly  occupied 
with  household  management  and  female  accomplish- 
ments, while  they  plied  their  tasks  with  their 
attendants  in  the  women's  apartments;  but  their 
life  was  not  one  of  such  absolute  retirement  as  that  of 
the  Oriental  harems.  On  some  occasions  they  asso- 
ciated with  men,  and  took  part  in  their  sacrifices  and 
banquets;  and  though  they  never  went  out  unat- 
tended, yet  a  good  deal  of  liberty  must  have  been 
allowed  the  young  girls,  to  judge  from  the  story  of 
Nausicaa,  who  went  down  to  the  sea-shore  to  wash 
the  clothes. 

In  the  historic  age,  the  Doric  states  bear  the 
closest  analogy  to  heroic  times  in  their  marriage 
customs.  Here,  too,  we  find  the  same  undisguised 
assumption  that  marriage  existed  for  the  sake  of 
rearing  children ;  and,  in  fact,  the  laws  of  Lycurgus 
permitted  a  man  to  transfer  his  conjugal  rights  for  a 
time  to  another,  if  his  childlessness  imperilled  the 
existence  of  the  family.  In  ^pite — or,  perhaps,  on 
account — of  this  custom,  infidelity  was  very  rare  at 
Sparta,  even  among  the  men,  and  the  institution  of 
hetaerae  never  gained  ground  there.  Concubinage, 
which  was  very  common  in  the  heroic  age,  fell  into 
disuse  during  historic  times,  but,  except  at  Sparta,  it 
was  really  discontinued  only  in  name.  The  domestic 
relations  between  husband  and  wife  more  closely 
resembled  our  own  at  Sparta  than  in  the  Ionic- Attic 
states.  Even  at  Sparta  the  household  was  the  centre 
around  which  the  woman's  life  revolved,  but  she  was 
not  degraded  into  a  mere  housekeeper;  a  Spartan 
addressed  his  wife  as  "  Mistress  "  (Seo-Trotra),  made  her 
the  partner  of  his  interests,  and  consulted  her  about 


MARRIAGE   AND  WOMEN.  147 

matters  of  importance.  This  seemed  so  strange  to 
the  other  Greek  states  that  they  were  inclined  to 
regard  the  Spartan  husbands  as  henpecked,  which  was 
by  no  means  the  case ;  but  there  is  no  doubt  that 
Spartan  history  can  boast  of  far  more  remarkable 
women  and  admirable  mothers  than  Athenian.  The 
strong  patriotism  of  the  Spartan  women  which 
triumphed  over  gentler  feelings  is  sometimes  a  little 
unattractive  to  our  modern  sentiments,  but,  in  any 
case,  these  women  command  our  fullest  respect. 

The  position  of  women  in  the  Ionic  states  bears  a 
more  Oriental  character,  and  here  it  is  the  wife  who 
addresses  the  husband  as  "Master."  The  Athenian 
regarded  his  wife  as  a  subordinate  being,  who  would 
bear  him  children  and  keep  his  house  in  order,  but 
was  incapable  of  rising  beyond  this  sphere.  A  woman 
must  keep  silence  about  all  political  matters,  and,  as 
a  rule,  she  was  not  even  acquainted  with  her  husband's 
private  affairs.  The  husband  was  very  seldom  at 
home;  public  life,  professional  duties,  gymnastics, 
social  intercourse,  kept  him  from  his  family  during 
the  greater  part  of  the  day ;  at  meals  they  met  to- 
gether, except  when  the  husband  had  invited  guests, 
and  then  the  wife  had  to  withdraw  into  retirement. 
As  a  rule,  husband  and  wife  hardly  knew  each  other 
before  marriage ;  it  was  not  till  afterwards  that  it  was 
possible  to  discover  whether  their  characters  were 
suited  to  one  another,  and  then  it  often  turned  out 
that  these  were  quite  incompatible.  Then  they  went 
their  own  ways,  or  else  jarred  and  quarrelled.  Some- 
times a  sensible  man  succeeded  in  educating  and 
raising  to  his  own  level  a  really  intelligent  wife, 
to  whom  he  could  communicate  his  plans  and  in- 
terests, and  thus  make  her  his  partner  in  the  true 
sense  of  the  word  ;  but  this  was  the  exception,  and,  as 


148  GREEK   LIFE  AT  HOME. 

a  rule,  the  spheres  of  husband  and  wife  remained 
distinct.  Moreover,  the  ever-increasing  influence  of 
the  hetaerae  did  much  to  loosen  the  bonds  of  mar- 
riage. It  was  a  very  common  thing  for  married  men 
to  visit  hetaerae  or  enter  into  love  intrigues  with 
slaves ;  and,  as  a  rule,  the  wives  shut  their  eyes  to 
it,  so  long  as  some  regard  was  shown  for  appearances. 
If  a  married  man  were  to  take  a  hetaera  into  his 
own  house,  that  would  be  a  ground  of  divorce ;  but 
unmarried  men  very  often  kept  mistresses,  and  the 
relation  between  them  sometimes  closely  resembled 
marriage.  Supposing  a  man  were  to  neglect  his  own 
family  too  much  through  this  intercourse,  or,  by 
spending  his  money  in  this  way,  to  inflict  an  injury 
on  them,  the  wife,  if  she  possessed  the  full  rights  of 
citizenship,  had  the  right  to  enter  a  complaint.  Im- 
proper language  in  the  presence  of  women  was  not 
permitted,  and  no  stranger  was  allowed  to  enter 
the  women's  apartments  during  the  absence  of  the 
husband.  The  children  were  bound  to  the  most 
absolute  obedience  and  reverence  to  both  father  and 
mother. 

Generally  speaking,  the  law  afforded  a  woman  but 
little  protection  from  her  husband ;  infidelity  on  his 
part  did  not  entitle  her  to  a  divorce.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  strictest  fidelity  was  required  from  the  wife ; 
but,  in  spite  of  the  seclusion  in  which  she  lived, 
infidelity  was  by  no  means  uncommon,  since  there 
were  always  plenty  of  obliging  slaves  ready  to  help 
their  mistress  in  these  matters.  In  most  Greek  states 
the  offenders  were  punished  by  the  loss  of  certain 
rights,  and  the  husband  was  not  only  justified  in 
demanding  a  divorce,  but  even  morally  bound  to  do 
so,  if  his  wife's  wrong-doing  had  been  noised  abroad. 
The  law  took  no  steps  to  punish  the  lover ;  but  the 


MARRIAGE   AND  WOMEN.  149 

husband  had  the  right  to  inflict  corporal  punishment 
on  him,  or  even,  if  he  caught  him  in  the  act,  to  kill 
him,  unless,  indeed,  he  preferred  to  seek  compensation 
for  his  shame  in  a  money  fine.  In  case  of  divorce, 
too,  the  woman  was  worse  off  than  the  man.  In  con- 
sequence of  the  loose  relation  of  the  marriage- tie,  it 
was  very  easy  to  break  it.  A  husband  could  dismiss 
his  wife  or  send  her  back  to  her  parents,  or  the 
woman  could  simply  leave  her  husband's  house,  and 
this  was  usually  enough  to  annul  the  marriage.  In 
the  latter  case  the  wife  was  obliged  to  lodge  a  com- 
plaint against  her  husband  in  person  with  the  archon, 
as  there  were  certain  legal  matters  connected  with 
the  divorce,  chiefly  concerning  the  dowry ;  as  a  rule, 
if  the  husband  sent  away  his  wife  without  sufficient 
reason,  he  had  to  give  back  the  dowry  to  her  or  her 
legal  representative  (father,  brother,  or  guardian), 
unless  the  cause  of  the  divorce  was  infidelity  which 
had  been  clearly  proved  against  the  wife.  But  though 
there  is  an  appearance  of  justice  here,  in  reality  the 
man  had  the  advantage ;  for  it  was  only  the  most 
cogent  reasons  that  would  induce  a  woman  voluntarily 
to  leave  her  husband,  while  the  man  often  arbitrarily 
put  away  his  wife  for  the  most  trivial  reasons  ;  more- 
over, as  a  woman  was  always  politically  a  minor,  and 
if  she  left  her  husband  could  not  go  on  living  by 
herself,  she  was  obliged  to  return  to  a  state  of 
tutelage  under  her  father,  or,  if  he  were  no  longer 
living,  her  brother  or  legal  guardian.  Many  a  woman 
would  rather  endure  the  most  cruel  treatment 
from  her  husband  than  return  thus  to  her  father's 
house. 

The  life  of  Athenian  women  was  entirely  devoted 
to  domestic  affairs.  The  part  of  the  house  set  aside 
for  the  wife  and  children,  and  afterwards  for  the 


150  GREEK  LIFE   AT  HOME. 

grown-up  daughters  and  the  female  slaves,  was  gener- 
ally separate  from  the  rest  of  the  dwelling;  and  a 
Greek  writer  says  that,  as  the  door  which  separates 
the  women's  apartments  from  the  rest  of  the  house 
is  the  boundary  set  for  a  maiden,  so  the  door 
which  shuts  the  house  off  from  the  street  must  be 
the  boundary  for  the  wife.  We  must  not,  however, 


FIG.  79. 


suppose  that  Greek  women  were  entirely  shut  off 
from  publicity.  The  wives  of  poorer  citizens,  whose 
circumstances  were,  of  course,  quite  different  from 
those  of  the  upper  classes,  went  out  of  doors  often 
enough.  Some  were  compelled  to  do  so  by  their 
occupation,  and  others,  who  had  few  or  no  slaves 
at  their  disposal,  were  obliged  to  go  out  every  day  to 
purchase  food  and  other  necessaries  of  life. 

It  was  very  common  for  women  to  fetch  water  from 
the  public  wells,  and  to  have  a  little  chat  there  ;  but  in 
rich  houses  this  duty  of  fetching  the  water  naturally 


MARRIAGE   AND  WOMEN.  151 

fell  to  the  slaves.  We  find  allusions  to  these  expedi- 
tions to  the  well  in  legends  and  in  real  life ;  and  they 
are  often  represented  on  monuments,  especially  vase 
paintings.  Fig.  79  gives  an  example  of  the  kind 
taken  from  a  vase  painting  in  the  antique  style.  On 
the  left  we  see  the  well,  surmounted  by  a  Doric 
portico ;  the  water  is  flowing  from  a  lion's  mouth  into 
a  jug  (vSpla)  placed  beneath  it ;  the  woman  who  has 
come  to  fill  her  vessel  stands  waiting  beside  it. 
On  the  right  we  see  other  women  conversing  in  pairs ; 
two  have  already  filled  their  jars,  and  are  carrying 
them  on  their  heads,  supported  by  a  little  cushion, 
according  to  the  pretty  custom  which  still  prevails 
widely  in  the  south;  the  vessels  of  the  two  others 
have  not  yet  been  filled,  as  we  can  tell  from  their 
position. 

Women  of  the  better  classes  only  went  out  attended 
by  a  servant  or  slave,  and  then  but  seldom.  A  respect- 
able woman  stayed  at  home  as  much  as  possible ;  in 
fact,  the  symbol  of  domestic  life  was  a  tortoise,  a 
creature  which  never  leaves  its  house,  and  was  re- 
garded as  an  attribute  of  Aphrodite  Urania.  In 
consequence,  the  women  liked  to  linger  by  the  win- 
dows of  the  upper  storey,  the  one  generally  used 
for  their  apartments,  in  order  to  look  down  on  the 
street,  which  afforded  many  women  the  only  enter- 
tainment and  change  they  had  in  the  day's  occupa- 
tions. There  were  no  common  meetings  for  them 
as  there  were  for  men.  They  visited  one  another 
occasionally,  and  there  were  a  few  festivals  in  the  year 
to  which  they  went  without  the  men,  and  then  the 
proceedings  seem  to  have  been  very  lively,  as  for 
instance,  at  the  Thesmophoria.  The  women  drove  in 
their  finest  clothes  to  the  Eleusinian  celebrations, 
and  they  also  took  part  in  the  Panathenaea,  on  which 


152  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

occjision  the  daughters  of  the  resident  foreigners 
(/AeToiKot)  carried  their  chairs  and  sunshades  behind 
them.  In  general,  it  appears  as  though  more  liberty 
had  been  gradually  granted  women  in  the  matter  of 
appearance  in  public,  though  this  liberty  did  not 
extend  in  Greece  as  far  as  at  Alexandria  in  the  time 
of  the  Ptolemies,  when  Theocritus,  in  one  of  his  idylls, 
represents  two  citizens'  wives,  attended  by  theii  ser- 
vants, penetrating  into  the  densest  crowd  on  the 
occasion  of  the  Festival  of  Adonis.  The  manifold 
contradictions  which  we  find  in  the  ancient  writers 
regarding  the  public  appearance  of  women,  which 
have  called  forth  so  many  various  opinions  among  the 
learned  of  the  present  day,  must  be  attributed  in  part 
to  differences  of  period  and,  in  part,  to  differences  of 
locality. 

Notwithstanding  this,  everywhere  and  always  in 
antiquity  a  woman's  sphere  was  supposed  to  be  the 
household,  and  when  the  family  and  the  number  of 
slaves  was  large,  this  charge  required  a  good  deal  of 
strength  and  attention.  Not  only  had  all  the  food  to 
be  prepared  for  the  household,  but  also  the  clothing 
had  to  be  provided  for  all  its  members;  for  it  was 
very  unusual  for  any  woman,  who  had  numerous  slaves 
at  her  disposal,  to  purchase  stuffs  or  clothes  ready- 
made.  They  therefore  spent  a  great  part  of  the  day 
with  their  daughters  and  maids  in  a  specially  ap- 
pointed part  of  the  house,  where  the  looms  were  set 
up.  Here,  in  the  first  place,  the  wool,  which  was 
bought  in  a  rough  condition,  was  prepared  for 
working,  by  washing  and  beating,  then  fulled  and 
carded,  disagreeable  occupations  which,  on  account  of 
the  exertion  required,  were  usually  left  to  the  maids. 
The  wool  thus  prepared  for  working  was  then  put  in 
lurge  work-  or  spinning- baskets  (Ka\adoi  or  ToXapot), 


MARRIAGE    AND   WOMEN.  153 

and  we  often  see  these  on  monuments  which  represent 
scenes  from  a  woman's  life.  A  statue  of  Penelope, 
the  prototype  of  an  industrious  woman,  of  which 


Fro.  80. 

several  replicas  have  come  down  to  us,  represents  a 
spinning-basket  under  her  chair.  The  spinning-wheel 
was  unknown  to  antiquity,  but  the  distaff  and  spindle 
were  used  exactly  as  they  still  are  in  the  south. 
(Compare  the  representation  from  a  vase  painting  in 
Fig.  80.)  The  woman  here  represented  is  seated 


154 


GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 


(sometimes  we  find  women  walking  or  standing  as 
they  spin)  ;  she  holds  up  the  distaff  in  her  left  hand  ; 
in  front  of  her  is  a  stand,  on  which  wool  or  flax  seems 
to  be  fastened  ready  to  fill  the  distaff  afresh.  For 
weaving  they  used  an  upright  loom  of  tolerably 
simple  construction,  but  yet  suited  for  weaving  heavy 
materials  and  elaborate  patterns.  Such  an  one  is 


Fro.  81. 


represented  on  Fig.  81,  from  a  vase  picture  of  Penelope 
at  the  loom.  We  can  recognise  on  the  already  finished 
material,  an  ornamental  border  and  various  figured 
patterns  interwoven.  The  construction  of  the  loom  is 
only  superficially  indicated,  and  has  therefore  been 
explained  in  many  different  ways,  into  which  we 
cannot  at  present  enter.  Fig.  82,  taken  from  a  vase 
painting,  represents  a  number  of  women,  of  whom 
some  are  occupied  with  feminine  work  and  others  with 
their  toilet.  On  the  left  we  see  a  woman  holding  a 
spinning-basket  in  her  left  hand ;  further  to  the  right 
a  second  woman  is  seated  on  an  easy  chair  ( 


MARRIAGE   AND   WOMEN. 


155 


holding  an  em- 
broidery frame,  on 
which  apiece  of  ma- 
terial is  stretched, 
while  a  third  wo- 
man stands  near, 
watching  her.  Fur- 
ther to  the  right  is 
a  fourth,  who  is 
drawing  up  the 
folds  of  her  dress, 
and  probably  about 
to  fasten  her  girdle. 
The  woman  sitting 
next  her  on  the 
easy  chair  holds  an 
object  in  front  of 
her  which  is  not 
quite  distinct  — 
possibly  a  mirror, 
represented  in  pro- 
file, in  which  she  is 
looking  at  herself; 
near  her  stands  a 
maid,  holding  in 
her  right  hand  a 
pot  of  ointment,  in 
the  left  some  un- 
determined object, 
perhaps  a  pin- 
cushion. 

The  fulling  of 
the  woven  materials 
was  not  undertaken 
at  home,  since  it 


156 


GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 


was  a  difficult  operation  and  required  special  arrange- 
ments ;  it  was  done  by  the  fuller,  to  whom  any  soiled 
cloth  garments  were  also  sent.  Simple  woollen  clothes, 
as  well  as  linen  garments,  were,  of  course,  washed  at 
home. 

The  charming  description  in  the  "Odyssey"  of 


FIG.  83. 


Nausicaa,  who  goes  with  her  companions  to  the 
sea-shore  to  wash  the  clothes,  is  well  known ;  doubt- 
less similar  scenes  might  be  seen  in  later  times,  even 
though  no  king's  daughter  took  part  in  them,  and  no 
god-like  hero  alarmed  the  maidens  by  his  unexpected 
appearance.  Fig.  83  represents  a  vase  picture,  show- 
ing how  an  artist  of  the  fifth  century  imagined  that 
scene  in  Phaeacia,  according  to  the  analogy  of  his  own 
time.  On  the  left  side  of  the  picture,  not  represented 
here,  stand  Odysseus  and  Athene,  and  several  articles 


MARRIAGE   AND   WOMEN.  157 

of  clothing  are  hanging  up  to  dry  on  the  branches  of 
a  tree  ;  on  the  right,  which  is  here  represented,  some 
girls  are  engaged  in  hanging  out  the  clothes.  The 
finished,  or  newly-washed,  clothes  were  then  care- 
fully folded  and  laid  in  chests,  since  wardrobes  for 
hanging  up  dresses,  such  as  we  have,  seem  to  have 

unknown. 
The  vase  picture  represented  in  Fig.  84  shows  us 


FIG.  84. 


two  women  occupied  in  folding  some  kind  of  em- 
broidered garment ;  on  the  left  another  woman  is 
turning  round  to  look  at  them  ;  on  the  floor  stand  a 
chair  and  a  chest,  on  the  wall  hang  a  mirror  and  a 
garment. 

Notwithstanding  these  numerous  domestic  occu- 
pations, the  women  seem  to  have  had  sufficient  time 
to  devote  to  their  toilet.  In  spite  of  the  few  oppor- 
tunities they  had  of  appearing  elegantly  dressed 
before  strange  men,  or  their  own  friends,  Greek 
women  seem  to  have  been  no  exception  to  their  sex 


MARRIAGE   AND   WOMEN.  159 

in  their  fondness  for  dress  and  fine  clothes.  Consider- 
able attention  was  devoted  to  the  care  of  the  body. 
Washing  and  bathing  were,  of  course,  very  common. 
Scenes  from  the  bath  are  often  represented  on  monu- 
ments ;  especially  we  often  find  in  sculpture  or  paint- 
ing representations  of  Aphrodite,  or  some  beautiful 
mortal,  stooping  down  while  a  maid  pours  water  over 
her  back  from  ajar.  In  the  vase  picture  represented 
in  Pig  85,  next  to  which  a  scene  from  the  toilet  is 
depicted,  one  woman  is  pouring  water  into  a  basin, 
while  another  has  disrobed,  and  is  arranging  her  hair 
before  a  mirror.  We  must  suppose  the  locality  of 
these  scenes  to  have  been  a  special  bathroom,  which 
was  always  found  in  the  better  class  of  houses  on  the 
lower  storey. 

The  usual  morning  wash  was  performed  in  large 
basins  standing  on  high  feet,  or  sometimes  at  the 
well  itself,  which  was  situated  in  the  courtyard  of 
a  house ;  women  of  the  lower  classes  probably  washed 
at  one  of  the  public  wells.  On  a  picture  representing 
the  Judgment  of  Paris,  of  which  some  figures  are 
represented  in  Fig.  86,  a  vase  painter  naively  repre- 
sents Athene  thus  performing  her  toilet  before  pre- 
senting herself  to  the  judge;  she  is  holding  both 
hands  under  the  water  flowing  from  the  fountain, 
evidently  intending  to  wash  her  face ;  she  has  care- 
fully drawn  her  dress  between  her  knees  in  order  to 
keep  the  water  from  it.  There  were  also  large  public 
baths  for  women,  but  ancient  authorities  tell  us  very 
little  about  their  construction  and  use ;  still,  notices 
here  and  there  in  writing,  or  on  monuments,  enable 
us  with  certainty  to  assert  their  existence.  The  vase 
painting,  Fig.  87,  gives  a  wonderfully  vivid  picture  of 
one  of  these  public  baths  for  women.  It  is  a  hall, 
supported  by  Doric  columns,  covered  to  the  height  of 


FIG    86. 


162  GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 

about  a  loot  with  water,  which  is  always  flowing  fresh 
from  the  heads  of  animals  below  the  capitals  of  the 
pillars  ;  probably  the  water  was  led  through  the  pipes 
passing  from  column  to  column,  on  which  the  women 
have  hung  their  clothes.  The  women,  with  their  hair 
plaited  hi  single  braids  to  prevent  it  getting  wet,  are 
standing  under  the  douches  and  letting  the  water 
pour  over  their  head,  back,  arms,  and  legs,  while  they 
rub  themselves  with  their  hands.  \Ve  cannot  tell 
whether  women  of  the  better  classes  also  went  to 
these  public  baths;  in  any  case,  the  middle  classes, 
who  probably  had  no  bathrooms  of  their  own,  formed 
the  greater  part  of  the  attendance. 

Bathing  was  accompanied  by  anointing  and  rub- 
bing with  oils  or  other  fragrant  essences ;  this,  too, 
we  often  find  represented  on  monuments,  where  a 
lady  herself  makes  use  of  a  little  oil-flask  (\ijKvdo^,  or 
an  attendant  rubs  her  body  with  it.  In  fact,  rich 
women  always  had  a  slave  who  acted  as  lady's-maid 
to  help  them  at  their  toilet,  and  on  the  many  toilet 
scenes  depicted  on  the  Greek  vases  we  seldom  see  women 
dressing  without  assistance.  Thus,  in  Fig.  88  (Frontis.), 
two  women  are  helping  a  third  to  dress  ;  the  mistress 
stands  hi  the  middle,  and  is  about  to  fasten  her  girdle, 
and,  in  order  not  to  be  hindered  by  the  falling  folds 
of  her  chiton,  she  is  holding  the  tip  in  her  mouth  ;  in 
front  of  her  stands  an  attendant  holding  a  mirror; 
another  woman  standing  behind  her,  apparently  rather 
a  friend  than  a  slave,  holds  a  jewel  casket  in  the  left 
hand,  and  with  the  right  hands  a  pearl  necklace  taken 
from  it  to  the  lady.  On  Attic  Stelai  we  very  com- 
monly find  a  lady  represented  with  her  lady's-maid 
and  jewel  casket.  The  use  of  the  mirror  is  also  a 
favourite  subject  hi  works  of  art,  especially  connected 
the  arrangement  of  the  hair  and  veil  Thus,  in 


MARRIAGE   AND   WOMEN.  163 

Fig.   86,   we   find   that  even   Hera,  before    showing 
herself  to  Paris,  finds  it  necessary,  with  the  help  of 


FIG.  89. 


her  hand-mirror,  to  make  some  slight  alteration  in 
her  veil.  A  similar  scene  is  depicted  by  the  pretty 
terra-cotta  from  Tanagra  (Fig.  89).  Fig.  90  represents 


164 


GREEK    LIFE  AT  HOME. 


a  lady  fully  dressed,  perhaps  a  bride,  attended 
by  two  lady's-niaids,  one  of  whom  holds  an  open 
jewel  casket  before  her,  in  order  that  she  may 
choose  something  more  out  of  it,  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  she  is  so  carefully  veiled  that  all  ornament 


FIG.  90. 


seems  superfluous.  Besides  these  toilet  scenes,  Fig. 
91  represents  a  vase  picture  giving  other  scenes  from 
the  life  of  women,  which,  however,  have  not  yet  been 
clearly  interpreted.  The  woman  represented  here  is 
seated  on  a  chair,  her  right  leg  is  uncovered,  and  the 
foot  is  placed  on  a  curious  rest ,  in  her  hand  she 
holds  a  bandage,  as  though  she  intended  to  fasten  it- 
round  her  foot.  Another  woman  stands  and  looks 
on;  a  spinning-basket  and  a  stool  are  also  in- 
cluded in  the  picture.  It  is  impossible  to  say 


MARRIAGE   AND  WOMEN.  165 

whether    this    should  also  be  regarded  as  a  toilet 
scene. 

Greek   women   made  use  of  many  cosmetics  for 


Fio.  91. 

their  toilet.  They  not  only  anointed  their  bodies 
with  fragrant  essences  and  their  hair  with  sweet- 
scented  oils  and  pomades,  but  the  practice  of  rougeing 
was  also  a  very  common  one.  The  Spartan  women, 
whose  healthy  complexions  were  celebrated,  probably 
made  little  use  of  it ;  but  the  ancient  writers  supply 
sufficient  testimony  to  its  commonness  at  Athens. 


166  GREEK  LIFE  AT  HOME. 

This  practice  probably  originated  in  the  East,  and  its 
great  popularity  among  the  women  of  the  Ionic-Attic 
race  is  probably  due  to  the  fact  that  want  of  fresh  air 
and  exercise  gave  them  a  pale,  sickly  complexion,  and 
they  therefore  considered  it  necessary  to  improve  it 
artificially,  though  it  were  only  to  please  their  own 
husbands.  They  supplied  the  tender  colouring  of 
forehead  and  chin  with  white  lead,  the  redness  ot 
their  cheeks  with  cinnabar,  fucus,  and  bugloss.  or 
other  (usually  vegetable)  dyes ;  there  was  a  special 
flesh  tint  used  for  painting  below  the  eyes.  The  eye- 
brows were  dyed  with  black  paint,  which  was  made  of 
pine  blacking  or  pulverised  antimony,  and  dyeing  the 
hair  was  quite  common  as  early  as  the  fifth  century 
B.C.,  and  by  no  means  unusual  even  among  men. 
The  rouge  was  put  on  either  with  the  finger  or  a  little 
brush.  In  vain  the  poets,  especially  the  comic  writers, 
aimed  the  sharpest  arrows  of  their  wit  at  this  evil 
practice ;  in  vain  they  described  in  drastic  colours 
how,  in  the  heat  of  summer,  two  little  black  streams 
poured  down  from  the  eyes  over  the  face,  while  the 
red  colour  from  the  cheeks  ran  down  to  the  neck ; 
and  the  hair  falling  over  the  forehead  was  dyed  green 
by  the  white  lead.  The  best  cure  would  doubtless 
have  been  found,  if  every  man  had  been  as  sensible  as 
the  young  husband  described  in  Xenophon's  story 
alluded  to  above  (p.  130),  who  cured  his  wife  of 
rougeing  by  representing  to  her  the  absurdity  of  this 
practice,  showing  her  how  impossible  it  was  for  a 
woman  to  deceive  her  own  husband  in  this  way, 
since  the  truth  might  come  to  light  at  any  moment. 
He  also  advised  his  wife  not  to  spend  the  whole  day 
in  her  room,  but  to  move  about  the  house,  superintend 
the  servants'  work,  help  the  housekeeper,  and  herself 
lend  a  hand  in  kneading  the  dough,  and  other  such 


MARRIAGE    AND   WOMEN.  167 

occupations,  while  supplyingexercise for  herself  by  shak- 
ing out  and  folding  up  the  clothes.  Then  she  would 
have  a  better  appetite  for  her  meals,  be  in  better  health, 
and  naturally  have  a  better  complexion.  But  such 
sensible  husbands  were  rare,  and  probably  all  the  women 
were  not  so  obedient  as  the  wife  of  Ischomachus. 

We  do  not  intend  to  penetrate  any-  further  into 
the  toilet  mysteries  of  Greek  ladies,  but,  instead,  will 
give  our  readers  a  representation  of  a  vase  picture 
equally  remarkable  for  fineness  of  drawing  and  variety 
in  the  scenes  represented.  (Fig.  92.)  It  is  the  decora- 
tion of  a  lid  of  some  terra-cotta  jar  or  box,  and 
was  probably  used  for  cosmetic  purposes.  Here  we 
see  a  large  number  of  girls,  most  of  whom  are  occupied 
with  their  toilet.  In  spite  of  the  modesty  of  their 
dress  and  behaviour,  it  does  not  seem  probable  that 
we  are  here  obtaining  an  insight  into  a  family  dwel- 
ling; the  numerous  little  Cupids  represented,  and 
also  the  presence  of  a  young  man,  lead  us  to  suppose 
that  we  see  hetaerae  before  us.  The  young  man  is 
leaning  against  the  seat  of  a  richly-clad  lady,  who 
appears  somewhat  more  matronly  than  the  others ;  she 
holds  an  open  jewel  casket  in  her  hand,  from  which 
she  is  about  to  take  some  object.  The  young  man  is 
leaning  on  a  stick,  at  the  end  of  which  a  Cupid  is 
climbing  up  in  play.  If  we  follow  the  view  of 
L.  Stephani,  in  regarding  this  woman  as  the 
superintendent  of  the  girls,  he  is  probably  right 
in  his  further  interpretation,  that  the  youth  has 
given  the  casket  to  this  lady  in  order  to  win  lier 
favour  and  access  to  the  girls.  To  the  left  of  this 
group  we  find  a  girl  holding  a  hand  mirror  before 
her,  apparently  about  to  arrange  her  hair,  as  she  is 
holding  one  hand  up,  but  this  might  also  be  inter- 
preted as  a  gesture  of  pleased  surprise  at  her 


168  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

appearance.  Next  to  her  is  an  attendant  helping  a 
girl  arrange  her  head-dress ;  both  her  hands  are  occu- 
pied with  it,  while  the  girl  bends  her  head  a  little 


FIG.  92. 

forward,  and  in  her  hands  already  holds  the  necklace 
wliich  she  is  going  to  put  on.  Two  Cupids  stand 
beside  her,  one  carrying  some  indistinct  object,  per- 
haps a  tympanum,  the  other  apparently  holding  two 
bracelets.  On  an  easy-chair,  under  which  appears  a 
bird,  perhaps  a  duck,  a  girl  is  sitting  holding  an 
open  casket,  out  of  which  a  woman,  standing  in  front 


MARRIAGE  AND  WOMEN.  169 

of  her,  has  taken  some  fine  material,  or  a  veil,  which 
she  is  now  unfolding.  Between  the  two,  on  the  ground 
stands  an  incense-burner  (Ov^iarripiov),  next  a  Cupid 
holding  an  oil-flask  in  his  hands.  A  richly-dressed 
woman  leans  against  a  terminal  figure  of  the  bearded 
Dionysus,  bending  a  branch  into  a  wreath  with  both 
hands;  in  front  stands  a  dog,  looking  up  at  her. 
Further  to  the  left  a  girl  is  sitting  on  a  stool,  while  an 
attendant  is  arranging  her  hair  ;  she  has  placed  both 
hands  on  her  knees,  and  is  sitting  quite  quietly  while 
the  other,  to  judge  from  the  posture  of  her  left  hand, 
appears  to  be  saying  something  to  her;  the  Cupid, 
kneeling  on  the  ground,  is  fastening  the  sandals  of 
the  seated  girl ;  an  incense-burner  stands  beside  them. 
Next  them  stands  a  woman  with  richly-dressed  hair ; 
her  right  hand  hangs  down  and  holds  a  mirror ; 
at  her  feet  is  some  object  whose  meaning  is  not  clear. 
Still  further  we  see  a  little  table  on  three  goat-shaped 
feet,  at  which  two  girls  are  sitting  opposite  one 
another,  one  on  an  easy-chair,  the  other  on  a  simpler 
seat ;  under  the  easy-chair  is  a  cage  with  a  little  bird. 
We  cannot  determine  the  occupation  of  the  girls  who 
have  placed  their  hands  on  the  table,  while  one  o^ 
them  holds  some  indistinct  object  in  her  left  hand — 
probably  they  are  playing  some  game ;  above  them 
hovers  a  Cupid  with  a  wreath  of  leaves ;  near  him  we 
observe  a  beautifully  ornamented  little  chest.  The 
last  of  these  female  figures  stands  in  front  of  a  washing 
basin,  in  which  she  has  placed  both  hands,  probably 
to  wash  them,  rather  than,  as  Stephani  supposes,  in 
order  to  wash  some  object  in  the  basin ;  for  a  domestic 
occupation  such  as  the  washing  of  any  garment  would 
not  be  appropriate  to  the  rest  of  the  scenes.  On  the 
ground  stands  a  beautifully-shaped  water-jar. 

It  would  not  be  easy  to  pass  judgment  on  Greek 

G* 


170  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

women  in  general,  as  differences  of  race  have  consider- 
able  influence.  Nor  can  we  place  much  confidence  in 
.our  literary  authorities,  least  of  all  in  Aristophanes, 
who  says  in  the  Thesmophoriazusae  that  the  men 
could  place  no  trust  whatever  in  their  wives,  and  were 
obliged  to  keep  them  under  lock  and  key,  and  keep 
Molossian  hounds  on  purpose  to  frighten  away  their 
lovers,  while  they  deprived  them  even  of  the  keys  of 
the  storeroom.  This  is,  of  course,  exaggerated  inven- 
tion, as  is  also  the  statement  that  all  the  suspicion  ot 
the  women  is  due  to  the  calumnies  of  Euripides.  The 
poets  of  the  Old  Comedy  directed  the  arrows  of  their 
wit  only  at  women  of  ill  fame ;  and  the  Newer  Attic 
Comedy  chooses  most  of  its  heroines  from  among  the 
hetaerae  (though  a  favourite  denotirrient  was  the  dis- 
covery that  these  were  really  long-lost  legitimate 
daughters  of  citizens) ;  and  consequently  the  women 
are  generally  treated  from  their  worst  side,  and  the 
men  represented  as  poor  victims.  The  aim  of  comedy, 
which  is  to  provoke  laughter,  is  more  easily  attained 
by  the  representation  of  characters  whose  morality  is 
not  unimpeachable ;  and  it  would  be  equally  unfair  in 
our  own  time  to  form  a  picture  of  modern  morals 
based  on  the  representations  of  the  stage.  Undoubt- 
edly, the  Athenian  women  were  far  inferior  to  the 
Spartan  in  morality,  and  in  some  towns — especially 
Corinth  and  Byzantium — female  morality  seems  to 
have  been  at  a  very  low  ebb ;  but  we  must  not  on  that 
account  condemn  all  Greek  women  indiscriminately. 
One  reproach  is  too  often  heard,  and  too  clearly 
proved  to  be  discredited,  and  that  is  inclination  to 
drink.  This  vice  was  so  common  that  in  some  places 
women  were  actually  forbidden  to  drink  wine,  and  it 
was  this  that  sometimes  compelled  husbands  to  take 
the  keys  from  their  wives. 


MARRIAGE   AND    WOMEN.  171 

We  cannot  close  this  section  without  a  word  on 
that  class  of  women  who  sold  their  favours  to  any  who 
would  pay  the  price  for  them.  The  Greeks  euphem- 
istically called  these  hetaerae  (eratpat),  female  com- 
panions. They  seem  to  have  been  unknown  in  the 
heroic  age,  but  in  historic  times  they  were  found 
almost  everywhere,  and  association  with  them  was  so 
common  that  it  was  hardly  a  cause  of  reproach  even 
to  married  men.  The  law  regarded  their  existence  as 
not  only  a  matter  of  course,  but  even  as  necessary, 
and  the  State  promoted  the  establishment  of  houses 
for  them.  There  were  many  such  at  all  the  ports, 
and  many  large  manufacturing  or  trading  cities,  such 
as  Corinth,  obtained  a  distinct  reputation  on  this 
account ;  though  at  the  same  time  it  was  often  said 
that  a  stay  there  was  both  dangerous  and  expensive. 
Besides  these  public  establishments,  the  visitors  to 
which  paid  a  fixed  entrance  fee,  the  amount  of  which 
varied  according  to  the  elegance  of  the  house,  there 
were  also  private  establishments  of  a  somewhat  differ- 
ent character.  These  were  kept  by  a  man  or  woman, 
sometimes  an  old  hetaera,  whose  property  the  girls  in 
the  house  became,  by  being  bought  direct  as  slaves 
or  obtained  in  some  other  way.  Many  of  these  poor 
girls  had  been  exposed  in  their  infancy,  and  brought 
up  by  the  owners  of  these  houses,  who  repaid  them- 
selves for  the  cost  of  nurture  by  the  income  thus 
brought  in.  Such  girls  were  often  the  heroines  of 
comedies,  and  in  the  end  wore  happily  united  to  their 
lovers.  Tho  flute-girls,  who  played  at  the  symposia, 
were  also  often  kept  in  such  houses,  and  their  owners 
not  only  provided  rich  and  elegant  clothing,  but  also 
spent  much  money  on  their  education,  and  especially 
on  the  training  of  their  musical  talents,  which  enabled 
them  to  earn  higher  pay. 


172  GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 

But  far  the  greater  part  of  the  hetaerae  lived  alone, 
and  every  large  town  possessed  a  number  of  these 
women,  who  were  classed  in  different  grades  according 
to  their  education.  Some  of  them  were  rich  women, 
owning  large  numbers  of  slaves;  their  fame  spread 
through  the  whole  of  Greece,  and  their  rooms  were 
crowded  by  men  of  the  first  rank  in  politics,  literature, 
and  art ;  great  artists  vied  in  representing  them  in 
bronze  and  marble,  and  their  fame  has  descended  even 
to  our  own  times.  Among  all  these,  the  most  cele- 
brated was  the  older  Aspasia,  the  friend  of  Pericles,  a 
woman  of  the  highest  intellectual  endowments  and 
most  cultivated  taste,  who  attracted  men  rather  by 
the  power  of  her  intellect  than  of  her  charms.  Other 
celebrated  hetaerae,  such  as  Lais  and  Phryne,  owe  their 
renown,  which  has  descended  even  to  the  present  day, 
chiefly  to  their  extraordinary  beauty  and  the  numer- 
ous anecdotes  current  about  their  life  and  also  about 
their  greed  for  money,  and  shameless  character.  These 
hetaerae,  who  thus  lived  by  themselves,  were  either 
freed  women  or  foreigners  :  some  of  them  are  not 
unattractive  characters,  whose  wit  and  grace  may 
easily  have  attracted  even  men  of  note,  while  others 
were  mere  courtesans,  covetous,  superficial,  and  die^s- 
loving. 

In  order  to  understand  the  possibility  of  their 
social  intercourse  with  men  of  unblemished  reputa- 
tion, and  the  fact  that  these  girls  played  a  part  in 
Greek  literature  almost  more  important  than  that  of 
honest  women,  we  must  bear  in  mind  the  slight 
education  and  retired  life  of  the  Greek  women.  Even 
this  can  hardly  account  for  the  permission  granted 
to  a  hetaera  like  Phryne  to  dedicate  her  statue  by 
Praxiteles  at  Delphi,  or  her  venturing  to  bathe  in  the 
sea,  completely  naked,  like  an  Aphrodite  Anadyomene, 


MARRIAGE   ANTD   WOMEN.  173 

in  the  presence  of  numerous  admiring  spectators. 
We  can  only  explain  this  by  remembering  the  intense 
Hellenic  love  of  beauty,  apart  from  the  considerations 
of  morality,  that  looked  on  a  beautiful  human 
body  as  a  divine  work  demanding  adoration,  which 
made  it  possible  to  forget  the  moral  weaknesses 
inherent  in  it.  At  Corinth,  in  the  temple  of  Aphro- 
dite, more  than  a  thousand  temple  slaves  (iep6Sov\oi) 
were  maintained,  who  were  regarded  as  in  the  service 
of  the  goddess,  and  this  conception  of  love  as  worship 
was  very  common  throughout  the  East.  But  although 
much  was  openly  done  in  ancient  times  which  would 
be  concealed  at  the  present  day,  it  would  be  a  mistake 
to  suppose  that  the  position  occupied  by  these  women 
was  a  really  honourable  one. 

Although  there  was  no  official  control  kept  over 
them,  yet  they  were  not  left  absolutely  free ;  in  most 
towns  they  had  to  pay  a  tax  to  the  State.  Later 
writers  have  maintained,  but  with  what  accuracy  is 
uncertain,  that  a  special  dress  was  prescribed  for 
them ;  probably  they  were  only  distinguished  from 
other  women  by  conspicuous  bright  clothing  and  more 
elaborate. dress.  The  legal  protection  generally  ac- 
corded to  women  in  case  of  wrongful  treatment,  could 
naturally  not  be  claimed  by  them,  and  a  hetaera  who 
had  a  child  could  not  claim  from  its  father  money  for 
its  support.  In  fact,  the  lot  of  the  majority  was  at 
best  but  gilded  misery,  and  many  ended  their  days  in 
extreme  poverty. 

Greek  art  is  very  rich  in  scenes  from  the  life  of 
hetaerae;  many  have  been  already  represented  here 
(compare  Figs.  17  and  92),  and  others  will  follow. 
We  must  face  the  fact  that  the  very  period  which  is 
renowned  in  Greek  literature  and  art  as  that  of  the 
greatest  splendour,  was  a  time,  also,  of  moral  rottennesa 


174  GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 

Where  there  is  much  light  we  must  expect  much 
shade  ;  and  in  modern  art,  too,  the  highest  development 
of  painting  and  sculpture  was  contemporaneous  with 
the  religious  and  moral  degeneracy  of  the  Middle 
ages ;  indeed,  the  Rome  of  Alexander  VI.  and  Leo  X. 
was  probably  far  raore  immoral  than  the  Athens  of 
Pericles. 


CHAPTER  V. 

DAILY  LIFE  WITHIN  AND  WITHOUT  THE   HOUSE. 

A.t  Sparta— At  Athens — Chronology — Sun-dials— Breakfast— Morning 
Occupations — Lunch — The  Afternoon — Warm  Baths — Dinner — 
Amusements — The  Gymnasia — Greek  Hospitality. 

A  PICTURE  of  the  daily  life  of  the  Greeks  must  of 
necessity  be  subject  to  various  changes  according  to 
time  and  place.  Life  in  the  sixth  century  B.C.  was 
different  from  that  in  the  fourth  ;  the  daily  occupation 
and  the  mode  of  life  of  a  Spartan  differed  from  those 
of  an  Athenian  or  Theban ;  and  again,  the  rich  and 
free  citizen  spent  his  time  in  a  very  different  way  from 
the  small  arcisan  or  countryman,  who  was  dependent 
on  the  work  of  his  own  hands. 

There  is  very  little  to  say  about  the  heroic  period, 
and  we  cannot  form  any  complete  picture  of  it. 
Homer  describes,  only  the  life  of  the  nobles,  but  he 
does  not  tell  us  how  they  spent  their  time  when  they 
were  not  fighting,  though  this  was  a  very  common  occu- 
pation, owing  to  the  numerous  feuds  and  predatory 
expeditions  against  their  neighbours.  It  is  not  likely 
that  the  princes  and  nobles  spent  all  their  time  at 
festive  banquets,  delighting  in  plentiful  food  and  drink, 
and  listening  to  the  songs  of  the  bard,  though  there 
are  many  passages  in  Homer  which  might  lead  us 
to  suppose  so.  No  doubt  the  pleasures  of  the  feast 
and  of  wine  were  held  in  very  high  estimation  in  the 
heroic  period,  yet  serious  and  respectable  citizens 
can  hardly  have  spent  their  whole  day  in  luxurious 


176  GREEK   LIFE  AT  HOME. 

idleness,  like  the  wooers  of  Penelope,  who  daily  feasted 
at  the  expense  of  others.  Laertes,  who,  even  in  his 
old  age,  worked  in  his  garden,  was  far  more  typical  of 
the  Homeric  noble,  who  was  in  reality  only  a  landed 
proprietor  on  a  large  scale,  and  devoted  the  greater 
part  of  his  time  to  agricultural  pursuits,  himself'  often 
taking  active  part  in  them.  He  was  also  occupied 
with  gymnastic  exercises,  and  occasionally  by  political 
duties,  such  as  attendance  at  the  popular  assemblies 
which  concerned  the  interests  of  the  country. 
But  the  great  mass  of  the  people,  as  opposed  to  the 
few  members  of  the  nobility,  occupied  themselves 
chiefly  with  agriculture  and  cattle  rearing,  and,  to  a 
small  extent,  with  handicrafts  which  were  but  slightly 
developed  at  this  time,  when  many  things  were 
imported  from  other  countries,  and  others  chiefly 
made  at  home.  Of  course  they  all  had  to  attend  their 
Prince  as  vassals  in  case  of  war,  and  in  consequence 
there  must  have  been  military  training  for  the  lower 
classes,  even  in  time  of  peace.  Apart,  however,  from 
military  details,  we  learn  nothing  from  Homer  about 
the  life  of  these  classes  of  society,  and  very  little  about 
that  of  the  nobility,  for  his  description  of  the  life  of 
the  Phaeacians  bears  only  a  very  partial  analogy  to 
Greek  circumstances  at  that  time,  since  the  poet 
desires  to  represent  this  people  as  specially  fortunate 
beyond  others.  We  may,  therefore,  forsake  the  misty 
domain  of  legend  and  turn  to  those  ages  which  are 
enlightened  for  us  by  writers,  though  even  there  we 
shall  find  many  gaps  unfilled. 

It  is  a  natural  consequence  of  the  nature  of  our 
authorities  that,  even  in  historic  times,  the  descriptions 
of  authors  present  us  principally  with  a  reflection  of 
life  in  towns,  and  especially  large  towns  or  capitals. 
At  the  present  day  life  in  large  towns  differs  hi  many 


DAILY  LIFE.  177 

essential  respects  from  that  in  small  ones,  and  even 
more  from  that  hi  the  country ;  and  doubtless,  even  in 
antiquity,  there  were  strong  contrasts,  though,  perhaps, 
less  clearly  marked  than  in  modern  times.  In  large 
towns,  too,  there  were  many  differences  due  to  the 
character  of  the  race  and  the  nature  of  the  town 
itself;  the  life  of  a  citizen  in  a  large  trading  city 
must  have  been  very  different  from  that  at  a  place 
where  there  was  very  little  trade,  and  the  interest 
of  the  inhabitants  was  centred  in  agriculture.  But  of 
all  this  in  reality  we  know  very  little. 

The  life  of  the  Spartan  citizens  was  the  most 
regular  and  uniform,  and  this  in  consequence  of  the 
fixed  and  severe  demands  made  on  them  by  the  State. 
Their  dwellings,  though  large  and  roomy,  were  of  the 
simplest  description,  and  in  other  respects,  too,  the 
life  of  the  Dorians  was  distinguished  by  simplicity, 
yet  even  here  refinements  of  life  gradually  gamed 
ground,  and  in  the  Dorian  colonies  often  went  so  far  as 
to  produce  effeminacy.  Life  at  Sparta  itself  adhered 
longest  to  its  primitive  simplicity.  Here,  too,  the  old 
Dorian  custom  of  common  meals,  called  Syssitia  or 
Pheiditia,  prevailed  longest;  a  Spartan  took  his 
meals,  not  with  his  family,  but  with  other  com- 
panions, usually  connected  by  relationship.  They 
were  small  parties  of  about  fifteen  men,  who  clubbed 
together  foi  this  purpose;  each  contributed  his 
appointed  share  to  the  expenses  of  the  meal,  parti}  in 
kind  (especially  barley,  wine,  cheese,  figs,  or  dates), 
partly  hi  money  for  the  purchase  of  meat.  This  last 
was,  however,  supplied  in  part  by  the  frequent  sacri- 
fices, and  also  by  hunting,  for  the  custom  prevailed  of 
contributing  additional  gifts  now  and  then,  apart  from 
the  legal  contribution :  sometimes  some  game  or 
wheaten  bread,  instead  of  the  usual  barley  bread,  or 


178  GREEK    LIFE    AT   HOME. 

poultry,  young  cattle,  fruits,  etc.,  according  to  oppor- 
tunity or  season.  The  notorious  "  black  broth,"  which 
played  a  great  part  at  these  meals,  was  not  so  much 
soup  as  a  solid  meat  dish  with  broth,  and  though 
simple  and  easily  prepared,  was  probably  not  as  bad  as 
it  seemed  to  the  dainty  palates  of  the  other  Greeks. 
These  common  meals,  though  by  no  means  luxurious 
were  not  in  any  sense  meagre ;  and  though  plentiful 
drinking  after  the  meal  was  not  as  customary  at  Sparta 
as  in  other  places,  yet  every  guest  had  his  cup  beside 
him  filled  with  mixed  wine,  and  as  soon  as  it  was 
empty  it  was  filled  up  again  by  the  cup-bearer.  The 
intercourse  among  these  men  was  cheerful  and  free , 
they  discussed  political  and  military  matters,  and 
also  found  time  for  merriment  and  even  singing. 
Women  dined  alone  at  home  with  the  smaller  children 
and  the  daughters ;  the  boys,  as  soon  as  they  had 
outgrown  their  mother's  care,  were  taken  by  their 
fathers  to  the  mess,  and  sat  beside  them  there  on  low 
stools,  receiving  little  portions  of  the  dishes  which 
were  considered  suitable  for  youth.  When  they  grew 
older  they  dined  together  with  their  own  mess. 

No  Greek  race  despised  handicrafts  when  pursued  for 
the  sake  of  money  as  much  as  the  Dorians ;  no  Spartan 
would  pursue  a  craft  or  trade.  Still  the  life  of  the 
Laconian  must  not  be  imagined  as  one  of  pure  idleness ; 
there  were  sufficient  opportunities  for  other  occupa- 
tions. In  the  first  place  there  were  the  gymnastic  and 
military  exercises,  which  occupied  a  great  part  of  the 
day,  then  there  was  the  study  of  music,  which  was 
continued  even  after  their  education  had  ended ; 
hunting,  too,  was  a  very  favourite  occupation  among 
the  Dorians,  and  was  valued  on  account  of  its  tendency 
to  harden  the  body.  Some  time,  too,  was  occupied  by 
State  matters,  and  also  by  the  exercise  of  religious 


DAILY   LIFE.  179 

duties,  such  as  sacrifices,  choruses,  etc.  Moreover, 
there  was  a  great  deal  of  social  life  among  the  men. 
In  most  Dorian  cities  there  were  special  meeting-halls, 
or  club-rooms  (Xeo-%at),  which  existed  at  Athens  also 
and  other  places.  The  older  citizens  used  to  assemble 
there  and  discuss  various  matters  of  interest. 

We  must  now  turn  to  Athens,  where,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  more  numerous  literary  authorities, 
\ve  can  gain  a  clearer  idea  of  the  conditions,  and 
attempt  also  to  form  a  picture  of  the  town  itself,  such 
as  it  appeared  in  its  most  flourishing  period  under 
Pericles,  and  after  his  time.  It  would  be  a  great 
mistake  to  form  an  idea  of  the  appearance  of  the 
whole  city  from  the  splendid  buildings  on  the  Acro- 
polis, the  temples  which  are  partly  standing  at  the 
present  day,  and  the  other  public  buildings  which 
were  constructed  and  decorated  without  regard  to  ex- 
pense. Most  private  houses  were  quite  plain  outside ;  the 
ground- floor  generally  had  no  windows ;  there  were  no 
splendid  porticoes,  or  elaborate  facades,  and  they  were  low, 
seldom  having  more  than  two  storeys.  There  was  no 
regular  arrangement  of  streets  in  the  older  period,  any 
more  than  there  was  in  our  cities  in  the  middle  ages ; 
and  even  after  the  burning  of  the  city  by  the  Persians, 
when  dwellings  had  to  be  constructed  for  the  returning 
population,  the  town  was  quickly  rebuilt  without  any 
regular  plan.  It  was  not  till  later  that  streets  were 
methodically  laid  out,  and  this  was  largely  due  to  the 
influence  of  Hippodamus  of  Miletus,  who  flourished 
about  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century,  and  reformed 
the  ancient  style  of  building  cities.  Athens  itself 
could  not  profit  by  his  system,  which  adopted  a 
uniform  artistic  plan  for  the  construction  of  a  whole 
town ;  but  he  was  able  to  carry  out  his  scheme  in  the 
building  of  the  lower  city,  near  the  Peiraeus,  which 


180  GREEK  LIFE   AT  HOME. 

took  place  under  Pericles.  Here  Hippodamus  con- 
structed a  network  of  straight  broad  streets,  cutting 
each  other  at  right  angles,  and  in  the  middle  he  placed 
a  large  market,  evidently  in  the  form  of  a  square, 
called  the  "Market  of  Hippodamus."  The  land 
belonging  to  this  suburb  had  probably  been  very  little 
built  on ;  we  do  not  know  whether  the  State  had  any 
right  of  ownership  over  these  new  buildings.  The 
flourishing  suburbs,  the  numerous  public  squares 
planted  with  trees  and  laid  out  in  the  manner  of  parks, 
did  much  to  improve  the  appearance  of  the  city,  but 
a  great  deal  must  still  have  been  wanting  to  make  it 
appear  really  comfortable  to  us  moderns,  or  even  to  the 
Romans  of  the  Empire.  In  the  first  place,  the  streets 
were  unpaved,  and  there  were  no  sidewalks ;  these 
improvements  were  not  introduced  until  the  Roman 
period,  and  Greek  antiquity  was  content  with  ordinary 
high  roads ;  it  is  natural,  therefore,  that  in  dry  weather 
the  dust,  and  in  rainy  weather  the  mud,  should  have 
been  disagreeable.  Very  little  attention  was  paid  to 
the  cleanliness  of  public  roads ;  all  kitchen  refuse,  bath 
water,  etc.,  was  simply  poured  out  of  doors ;  at  night 
it  was  even  thrown  straight  from  the  windows  on  to 
the  street,  and  though  it  was  usual  to  call, "  Out  of  the 
way,"  yet  careless  people  might  sometimes  be  be- 
sprinkled on  their  way  huine  at  night.  There  was  no 
public  cleansing  of  the  streets;  it  was  left  to  beneficent 
rains  to  wash  away  all  uncleanness,  although  the 
street  and  market  police  (currwofMi  and  a^opavojjLoC), 
whose  duty  it  was  to  maintain  order  in  the  streets  and 
market  places,  were  supposed  to  see  that  they  were 
kept  in  proper  condition,  and  could  compel  proprietors 
who  threw  out  ashes  or  other  refuse  to  clear  this 
away;  yet  they  probably  confined  themselves  to  keep- 
ing the  streets  in  fairly  good  building  condition,  and 


DAILY   LIFE.  181 

seeing  that  all  was  in  order  when  processions  had 
to  pass  along  certain  roads.  Generally  speaking, 
Nissen*  is  probably  right  when  he  maintains  that,  to 
form  an  idea  of  the  life  at  Athens  by  any  modern 
counterpart,  we  must  not  think  of  Florence  or  Munich, 
but  rather  of  Cairo  or  Tunis. 

As  regards  the  ulterior  of  the  houses,  we  know 
very  little  about  the  arrangement  and  appointment  of 
the  rooms.  Naturally  these  were  liable  to  variations, 
since  a  small  family  might  inhabit  a  modest  little 
dwelling,  or  there  might  be  larger  houses,  containing 
numerous  apartments.  The  front  door,  which  opened 
(sometimes  outwards)  into  the  street,  at  which  those 
who  desired  entrance  knocked  with  their  fingers  or 
the  knocker,  was  opened  by  a  slave,  acting  as 
porter,  and  generally  led  to  a  hall,  through  which, 
either  direct  or  through  a  second  door,  an  open  hall 
surrounded  with  a  colonnade  (Peristylium)  was 
reached,  which  in  the  dwelling-houses  of  the  historic 
period  corresponded  to  the  open  courtyard  of  the 
Homeric  palace,  and  bears  an  analogy  to  the  Atrium 
of  the  Roman  house.  This  space,  which  was  un- 
covered in  the  middle,  and  surrounded  by  colonnades, 
was  the  usual  dwelling-place  of  the  family ;  sometimes 
they  took  their  meals  there,  and  the  altar  to  Zeus 
Herkeios,  generally  stood  there.  Round  about  were 
apartments  whose  doors,  and  probably  windows,  too, 
opened  into  the  central  hall ;  for  it  was  not  custom- 
ary to  have  ground-floor  windows  opening  on  the 
street,  and  the  sides  of  the  houses  usually  touched 
the  walls  of  the  neighbouring  buildings,  so  that  the 
rooms  on  the  ground-floor  could,  as  a  rule,  only 
obtain  their  light  from  the  central  hall.  Some  of 
these  apartments  were  destined  for  the  men,  and 

*  Nisseu, — "  Pompeianiscbe  Stydieu," 


182  GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 

others  for  the  women,  but  there  was  no  general 
room.  If  the  house  was  built  on  a  considerable 
space,  and  had  only  one  storey,  the  men's  rooms 
generally  opened  direct  on  the  central  hall,  while 
the  women's  were  placed  behind  these,  and  were 
separate  from  them,  having  a  special  door,  and 
doubtless,  too,  a  special  corridor,  through  which 
the  women  could  reach  the  street  without  passing 
through  the  men's  apartments.  If  the  house  was 
small  it  was  built  in  two  storeys,  and  the  women's 
apartments  were  then  situated  in  the  upper  storey. 
This  latter  arrangement  appears  to  have  been  the 
more  frequent.  We  often  find  allusions  to  women 
looking  down  on  to  the  street  from  the  windows  of 
the  upper  storeys,  and  we  also  often  find  women 
represented  on  vase  pictures  sitting  at  upper-storey 
windows.  These  window  openings  were  closed  either 
by  bars  or  wooden  shutters,  since  glass  panes  were 
unknown  in  the  Greek  period.  Where  there  were  a 
good  many  slaves,  it  seems  that  the  male  slaves  slept 
in  the  men's  apartments,  and  the  female  in  the 
women's  apartments,  except  in  those  cases  where  the 
master  allowed  certain  couples  to  live  together.  In 
larger  houses,  which  contained  a  great  number  of 
rooms,  we  must  imagine  not  only  special  sleeping  and 
dining  apartments,  along  with  guest-chambers,  rooms 
for  the  slaves,  store-rooms,  work-rooms,  library,  bath- 
room, etc.,  but  also  a  second  hall  in  the  centre  of  the 
women's  apartments,  and  gardens  connected  with 
this ;  though  flower  gardens  seem  to  have  been  a  late 
introduction  at  Athens — it  is  said,  indeed,  that  they 
date  from  the  time  of  Epicurus.  We  must  not 
assume  that  everyone  had  his  own  house  in  ancient 
Athens.  It  is  true  that  a  house  could  be  acquired 
for  a  very  low  price,  as  is  proved  by  the  case  of 


DAILY   LIFE.  183 

Socrates,  whose  whole  wealth  was  taxed  as  five  minae 
(something  under  twenty  pounds),  and  yet  included  a 
house ;  but  still  there  were  a  great  number  of  poorer 
citizens  who  hired  their  dwellings.  The  upper  storey, 
which  no  doubt  had  a  special  entrance,  and  which 
occasionally  projected  beyond  the  ground-floor,  was 
let  to  lodgers,  while  the  owner  lived  on  the  ground- 
floor.  Large  lodging-houses,  many  storeys  high,  such 
as  existed  at  Rome,  were  probably  not  found  at 
Athens  in  the  classical  period. 

We  have  no  certain  information  about  the  place  of 
the  kitchen.  It  was  probably  always  on  the  ground- 
floor,  and  was  certainly  the  only  room  in  the  house 
which  had  a  chimney,  since  there  was  no  heating 
apparatus  in  the  dwelling  rooms.  There  appears  to 
have  been  a  complete  absence  of  all  sanitary  con- 
veniences. 

At  the  present  day  an  indispensable  factor  in  our 
daily  occupations  is  some  apparatus  for  measuring  the 
time.  This  was  not  of  so  much  consequence  in  Greek 
antiquity,  and,  in  fact,  the  means  for  exact  division 
were  wanting.  They  had  no  regular  arrangement  of 
days  extending  from,  midnight  to  midnight,  with 
twenty-four  hours  of  equal  length,  but  instead  they 
distinguished  between  day-time  and  night-time,  cal- 
culating from  sunrise  to  sunset,  and  naturally  the 
length  of  these  periods  differed  according  to  the  time 
of  year.  These  two  chief  divisions  were  again  sub- 
divided ;  first  came  early  morning  (from  about  6  till 
9,  if  we  take  the  equinoctial  periods),  the  forenoon, 
when  the  market-place  began  to  fill  (9  to  12),  the 
mid-day  heat  (12  to  3),  and  the  late  afternoon  (3  to  6); 
in  the  night  there  was,  first,  the  time  when  the  lamps 
were  lit  (6  to  10),  next  the  dead  hours  of  the  night  (10 
to  2),  last  the  dawn  (2  to  6).  Besides  this,  they  divided 


184  GREEK    LIFE    AT   HOME. 

the  day  into  twelve  equal  divisions,  the  length  of 
which  naturally  varied  according  to  the  length  of  the 
day.  For  this  purpose  they  made  use  of  the  sun, 
which  was,  of  course,  only  available  on  cloudless  days, 
though  these  are  by  no  means  infrequent  in  the 
south.  All  these  arrangements  for  measuring  the 
time  were  probably  invented  by  the  Babylonians  in 
very  ancient  times,  and  introduced  among  the  Greeks 
by  Anaxirnander  about  500  B.C.  The  most  primitive 
is  the  "  shadow-pointer,"  which  is  only  a  pointed  stick 
fixed  in  the  earth,  or  a  column,  or  anything  else  of 
the  kind  ;  the  length  of  the  shadow,  which  varies  with 
the  position  of  the  sun,  supplied  the  standard  for 
calculating  the  hours.  The  length  of  the  shadow, 
which  changed  from  morning  to  evening,  made  a 
superficial  division  of  time  possible,  but  it  could  not  fix 
the  time  once  for  all,  for  all  days  of  the  year,  but  had 
to  be  specially  calculated  according  to  the  changes  of 
the  seasons.  Twelve  divisions  of  the  day,  to  be  deter- 
mined by  the  shado\v,  corresponded  with  ours  only  at 
the  equinox  ;  these  hours,  if  we  may  use  the  expres- 
sion, were  longer  in  summer  and  shorter  in  winter 
than  our  equinoctial  hours.  This  explains  why  the 
time  of  the  chief  meal,  which  was  usually  taken  at 
about  five  or  six  in  the  afternoon,  was  indicated  some- 
times by  a  7 -foot,  sometimes  by  a  10-  or  12-foot,  or 
even  a  20-foot  shadow  ;  for  though  at  midsummer 
the  shadow  would  be  quite  small  at  this  time,  it  would 
have  a  considerable  length  at  the  equinox,  and  at  the 
time  of  the  winter  solstice  it  is  probable  that  they  did 
not  dine  until  after  sunset.  Unfortunately,  we  have 
not  sufficient  information  to  determine  exactly  the 
length  of  this  shadow-pointer,  which  was  doubtless 
always  the  same,  in  order  to  prevent  confusion.  The 
assumption  that  the  pointer  was  about  the  average 


DAILY   LIFE.  185 

height  of  a  human  being,  and  that  people  even  used 
their  own  shadows  for  measuring  time,  is  very  im- 
probable. Such  shadow-pointers  probably  stood  in 
public  places,  where  everyone  could  make  use  of  them 
with  help  of  the  lines  drawn  on  the  ground ;  they 
could  only  be  set  up  in  private  dwellings  when  these 
had  large  open  spaces  (which  was  not  often  the  case) 
to  which  the  sun  could  have  access  all  day  long.  In 
later  times  inventions  were  made  which  supplied  what 
was  wanting  in  this  mode  of  reckoning  time ;  lines 
were  graven  on  the  stone  floor  on  which  the  shadow- 
pointer  stood,  which  gave,  at  any  rate,  some  indication 
of  the  change  in  the  length  of  the  hours  according  to 
the  months  ;  a  network  of  lines  of  this  description 
belonged  to  the  obelisk  which  Augustus  set  up  on 
the  Campus  Martius,  and  also  used  as  a  shadow- 
pointer. 

The  sun-dials,  invented  later  than  the  shadow- 
pointers,  probably  by  Aristarchus,  about  270  B.C., 
were  different ;  here  the  shadow  of  a  stick  placed  in 
a  semicircle,  on  which  the  hours  were  'marked 
by  lines,  indicated  the  time  of  day.  There  were 
three  kinds :  first,  those  that  were  calculated  at  the 
place  on  which  they  were  set  up,  and  could  not  be 
moved,  and  which  indicated  the  hours  of  the  day 
according  as  they  changed  in  the  course  of  the  year ; 
second,  those  which  were  arranged  for  moving,  and 
could  be  set  up  at  different  places ;  and,  third,  those 
used  by  mathematicians,  which  showed  the  equi- 
noctial hours  such  as  we  use  to-day.  It  is  impossible, 
however,  to  determine  whether  the  Greeks  were 
acquainted  with  all  the  three  kinds  which  we  find 
in  use  in  the  Roman  period. 

Besides  this,  water  clocks  were  used,  and  here 
again  we  must  distinguish  two  kinds.  The  common 


186  GREEK   LIFE    AT   HOME. 

water  clock,  which,  like  our  hour-glass,  marked  a 
definite  period  of  time  by  the  flowing  away  of  a 
certain  quantity  of  water,  is  certainly  a  very  ancient 
invention.  This  clock  consisted  of  a  vessel  of  clay  or 
glass,  in  the  shape  of  a  jar  or  a  basin,  which  was 
filled  with  water  by  an  opening  above,  and  a  second 
cup-shaped  vessel,  on  the  top  of  which  the  former 
was  arranged  in  such  a  way  that  the  water  poured  out 
slowly  through  little  sieve-like  openings  into  the  lower 
vessel.  Water  clocks 'of  this  kind  probably  existed  in 
most  households,  but  were  not  real  clocks,  since  they 
did  not  indicate  the  hour  of  the  day,  but  were  only 
used  for  calculating  some  particular  period  of  time. 
They  were  chiefly  used  in  the  law  courts  to  mark  the 
time  allowed  to  each  speaker,  and  when  a  speech  was 
interrupted  in  order  to  hear  witnesses,  or  to  read  out 
documents,  or  for  any  othor  purpose,  the  flow  of  the 
water  was  stopped,  and  it  was  set  going  again  when 
the  orator  continued  his  speech.  These  water  clocks 
were  also  used  on  other  occasions  wherever  certain 
periods  of  time  had  to  be  calculated,  and  this  might 
•take  place  hi  any  household.  The  same  principle 
underlay  the  water  clocks  which  were  supposed  to 
have  been  invented  by  Plato,  and  perfected  by  the 
Alexandrine  Ctesibius,  by  means  of  which  a  long 
period  of  time  could  be  subdivided  into  equal  parts, 
and  thus  the  hours  of  the  night  could  be  calculated, 
which  was  of  great  importance.  These  water  clocks 
could  only  be  constructed  when  it  was  possible  to 
make  transparent  glass  vessels  large  enough  to  hold 
a  quantity  of  water  sufficient  to  last  for  twelve 
hours  and  longer;  on  the  glass  there  was  a  scale 
graven,  which  gave  the  relation  of  the  hours  to  the 
height  of  the  water.  But  as  the  length  of  the 
night  decreases  and  increases  in  the  course  of  the 


DAILY    LIFE.  187 

year,  like  that  of  the  day,  and  therefore  the  length  of 
the  night  hours  is  continually  decreasing  and  in- 
creasing, a  very  complicated  network  of  lines  was 
required ;  four  vertical  lines  denoted  the  length 
of  the  hours  at  the  two  solstices  and  the  two 
equinoxes,  so  that  the  exact  ratio  was  given 
for  these  days.  At  other  times  they  had  to 
make  shift  with  a  more  or  less  exact  calculation, 
assisted  by  horizontal 
curves,  which  con- 
nected together  the 
third,  sixth,  ninth, 
and  twelfth  hours 
(Compare  the  scheme 
represented  in  Fig. 
93,  which  shows  the 
network  of  lines  en- 
graved on  the  glass 
vessel.)  The  longest 
and  shortest  days 
are  here  set  down 
according  to  the  lati- 
tude of  Athens,  the  former  as  14  hours,  36  minutes,  56 
seconds,  the  latter  as  9  hours,  14  minutes,  16  seconds. 
The  improvement  of  Ctesibius  consisted  in  adding  a 
table  with  horizontal  hour-lmes  to  the  water-vessel,  on 
which  a  metal  wire,  fastened  to  a  cork  that  swam  on 
the  water,  marked  the  time  by  its  position,  which  rose 
according  to  the  increase  of  the  water.  These  clocks 
could,  of  course,  be  used  in  the  daytime,  when  the 
weather  made  the  sun-dial  useless,  but  a  different 
scale  was  required  from  that  of  the  night  clocks. 
Still,  as  the  difference  between  the  longest  night  and 
the  longest  day,  and  the  shortest  night  and  the 
shortest  day,  is  very  slight,  the  same  scale  could 


188  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

really  be  used  for  day  and  night,  but  in  reverse  order, 
as  indicated  by  Fig.  93. 

Let  us  now  consider  the  manner  in  which  an 
Athenian  citizen  usually  divided  his  time.  We  can- 
not, of  course,  name  any  definite  hour  for  rising,  still 
it  seems  probable  that  early  rising  was  the  rule  at 
Athens,  and  that  not  only  the  artisans  began  their 
work  directly  after  sunrise,  but  that  the  schools,  too, 
often  opened  early.  The  morning  toilet  does  not 
seem  to  have  occupied  much  time.  In  washing,  a 
slave  poured  water  over  his  master  from  an  ewer  over 

a  basin,  and  some  sub- 
stitute for  soap,  such 
as  fuller's  earth  or  lye. 
was  used  ;  men  who 
lived  very  simple  lives, 
li  ke  Socrates,  probably 
performed  their  ablu- 
FlG-  94«  tions  at  one  of  the 

public  wells.  Break- 
fast was  a  scanty  meal,  and  generally  consisted  of 
unmixed  wine  and  bread.  After  that,  artisans  or 
others  who  had  a  definite  trade  went  to  their 
daily  occupations;  but  the  citizens  who  had  no 
regular  profession,  unless  attracted  by  some  other 
occupation,  such  as  hunting,  generally  spent  the 
morning  hours  visiting  their  friends,  practising 
gymnastics,  or,  supposing  they  put  off  these  oc- 
cupations to  a  later  hour,  visiting  the  barber  to 
have  their  hair  arranged  or  their  beards  cut  or 
shaved.  As  we  have  already  discussed  the  ques- 
tion of  hair-dressing  (p.  65),  we  will  here  only  give 
a  picture  of  some  ancient  bronze  razors  (Fig.  94), 
which  are  of  semi-circular  shape,  and  differ  essentially 
from  our  modern  ones.  The  pretty  terra-cotta  group 


DAILY    LIFE. 


189 


from  Tanagra,  in  Fig.  95,  transports  us  to  a  barber's 
shop ;  a  worthy  citizen,  apparently  covered  by  a  long 
dressing-mantle,  is  seated  on  a  low  stool,  while  a 


Fio 


short  man  standing  behind  him — perhaps  a  slave — is 
carefully  cutting  his  hair  with  a  pair  of  scissors. 
Barbers  undertook  the  care  of  both  hair  and  beard, 
and  cut  and  cleaned  the  nails.  These  barbers'  shops 
were  also  meeting-places  for  the  citizens — not  only 
for  idlers,  but,  gene  rally  speaking,  for  all  who  desired 
to  hear  the  news.  This  custom  still  prevails  hi  many 


190  GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 

parts  of  Italy,  especially  in  the  south,  where  the 
Salone  is  a  general  meeting-place.  Even  in  ancient 
times  barbers  had  a  reputation  for  being  talkative. 
Every  day  many  people  entered  their  shops,  and 
among  them  strangers  who  brought  news  and  ex- 
pected to  receive  some  in  exchange.  It  is  well  known 
that  the  news  of  the  defeat  of  the  Athenian  expe- 
dition to  Sicily  was  first  made  known  in  a  barber's 
shop  in  the  Peiraeus  by  a  stranger  who  had  just 
landed. 

All  this  occupied  about  the  first  quarter  of  the 
day ;  the  second  part  was  devoted  to  visiting  the 
market.  The  market-place  served  not  only  its 
original  end  as  a  place  for  selling,  but  was  also  the 
place  where  acquaintances  met  and  business  was 
transacted.  Here  stood  the  money-changers  and  the 
bankers,  at  their  booths  or  shops ;  here  were  shady 
arcades,  with  comfortable  seats,  where  the  hot  .rays  of 
the  sun  might  be  avoided  in  summer,  while  there  was 
opportunity  in  the  winter  of  profiting  by  the  warmth 
of  the  workshops  situated  close  by  the  market-place. 
It  was  a  very  general  custom  in  cold  weather  to  go  to 
public  baths  or  smiths'  workshops,  where  a  warm 
stove  could  certainly  be  found,  and  poor  people,  who 
did  not  possess  the  means  of  warming  themselves 
at  home,  often  pressed  so  eagerly  to  the  bath-stoves 
that  they  singed  their  clothes.  In  fact,  it  was  a  very 
general  custom  to  enter  any  workshop  or  booth  to 
have  a  chat  with  the  owner  or  the  visitors  there,  even 
without  any  intention  of  making  purchases.  We 
need  not,  therefore,  be  surprised  when  we  hear  of 
Socrates  visiting  a  shoemaker  or  a  sculptor  or  any 
other  artisan  and  beginning  a  discussion  with  him  ; 
this  custom  was  so  general  that  meetings  were 
arranged  in  the  workshops — thus,  for  instance,  the 


DAILY   LIFE.  191 

people  of  Decelea,  when  they  came  to  Athens,  always 
met  at  a  particular  barber's  shop. 

The  men  also  went  to  market  with  the  object  of 
making  purchases,  for  at  Athens,  curiously  enough, 
this  shopping  was  not  undertaken  by  the  women  or 
their  servants,  but  by  the  men  instead,  who  were 
accompanied  by  a  slave,  and  themselves  purchased 
the  required  food,  and  in  particular  the  fish,  so  very 
popular  at  Athens,  for  which  there  was  a  special 
market,  whose  beginning  vas  announced  by  a  bell 
Later  on,  in  the  third  century,  it  seems  to  have  been 
no  longer  regarded  as  correct  for  the  master  of  the 
house  to  make  his  own  purchases;  in  the  richer  houses 
there  was  a  special  slave  (u^opaa-T^)  kept  for  this 
purpose ;  female  slaves,  too,  were  sometimes  sent. 

At  mid-day  the  market  was  usually  over ;  then  the 
men  went  home  and  took  a  slight  repast,  not  by  any 
means  the  chief  meal  of  the  day,  but  rather  something 
like  our  lunch.  This  meal,  of  course,  varied  a  good 
deal  according  to  individual  fancy ;  many  people  con- 
tented themselves  with  the  remains  of  the  previous 
day's  dinner,  others  had  fresh  warm  dishes  served 
them ;  and  in  Sicily  and  Magna  Graecia,  where  great 
stress  was  laid  on  good  and  plentiful  food,  this 
often  became  a  really  substantial  meal.  Some  people 
entirely  omitted  this  lunch,  and  either  took  a  late 
breakfast  or  an  earlier  dinner.  Still,  most  well-to-do 
people  seem  to  have  taken  some  meal  at  the  end  of 
their  morning's  business. 

The  afternoon  was  spent  in  various  ways.  The  heat 
which  prevails  at  this  time  during  the  greater  part  of  the 
year  generally  compelled  people  to  stay  at  home  then  ; 
some  took  a  little  mid-day  nap,  but  this  was  not  very 
general.  Men  of  serious  disposition  devoted  these  hours 
to  reading  or  other  intellectual  pursuits,  while  thoso 


1 92  GREEK   LIFE    AT   HOME. 

who  were  inclined  to  idleness  probably  went,  even  in 
the  afternoon,  to  the  houses  devoted  to  dice-throwing 
and  drinking,  or  else  dawdled  about  hi  the  barbers' 
shops,  workshops,  etc. ;  the  club  rooms,  which  were 
specially  devoted  to  social  intercourse  among  the 
citizens,  were  probably  very  full  at  this  time.  Between 
the  third  and  fourth  divisions  of  the  day,  they  generally 
took  a  bath  as  a  preparation  for  dinner.  The  custom 
of  taking  a  wann  bath  daily  had  at  first  found  much 
opposition  in  Greece.  In  Homer  we  find  warm  baths 
only  mentioned  as  a  refreshment  after  long  journeys 
or  other  fatigues,  or  else  used  for  purposes  of  cleanli- 
ness ;  later  on,  cold  baths,  especially  in  the  sea  or  in 
streams,  were  recommended  as  good  for  the  health 
and  strengthening  for  the  nerves,  while  warm  baths 
were  looked  upon  as  enervating ;  still  the  custom 
became  very  common  of  taking  a  bath  before  dinner, 
either  at  home  or  in  one  of  the  public  baths.  We 
have  already  introduced  our  readers  to  a  public  bath 
for  women ;  Fig.  96  represents  a  public  bath  for  men, 
taken  from  a  vase  picture.  In  the  middle  is  the  bath 
room,  where  the  water  is  pouring  out  of  two  animals' 
heads.  On  the  right  and  left  are  youths  who  have 
already  taken  their  bath,  and  are  about  to  anoint 
themselves  with  oil  We  know  very  little  about  these 
public  baths  from  writers  or  from  remains  of  the 
buildings.  They  were  certainly  not  nearly  so  large  or 
so  luxurious  as  the  Thermae  of  the  Roman  Empire ; 
but  even  in  the  Greek  baths  there  were  separate 
apartments  for  warm,  cold,  and  vapour  baths,  with 
large  reservoirs  or  smaller  basins,  in  which  water  was 
poured  out  over  the  body,  also  rooms  for  undressing, 
anointing,  etc.  The  more  the  custom  grew  of  remain- 
ing for  hours  in  these  places  or  connecting  them  with 
the  gymnasia,  the  more  extensive  they  became  and 


DAILY   LIFE. 


193 


the  more  luxurious.  We  cannot  accurately  ascertain 
to  what  extent  the  State  sometimes  owned  these 
public  baths  and  attended  to  their  maintenance,  but 
admission  was  not  free  even  to  these ;  a  small  fee  was 
paid  to  the  bath 
attendant,  who 
superintended 
the  place,  and 
rendered  assist- 
ance in  the  bath, 
not  perhaps  to 
cover  the  ex- 
penses of  main- 
tenance, so  much 
as  for  his  own 
trouble  and  la- 
bour. The  owners 
of  private  estab- 
lishments were 
obliged  to  charge 
higher  fees  if 
they  wanted  not 
only  to  cover 
their  expenses, 
but  also  to  gain 
a  profit ;  mention 
is  made  of  a 
private  bathing 
establishment 
which  was  sold  for  3,000  drachmae,  and  must,  there- 
fore, have  brought  in  corresponding  interest  to  the 
purchaser,  which  could  only  be  obtained  by  the 
entrance  fees  of  the  bathers.  The  owner  and  atten- 
dants were  responsible  for  the  care  of  the  bath,  but 
not  for  the  clothes  of  the  bathers,  which  were  often 
u 


194  GREEK  LIFE   AT   HOME. 

stolen.  Those  who  had  plenty  of  slaves  used,  there- 
fore, to  bring  one  with  them  to  carry  the  utensils 
required  for  the  bath,  such  as  towels,  oil  flasks,  and 
strigils,  and  to  watch  over  his  master's  clothes  while 
he  was  bathing.  As  the  custom  of  taking  a  warm 
bath  daily  became  more  general,  the  scene  in  the  bath 
houses  an  hour  before  dinner  grew  more  and  more 
animated.  Talking  and  joking  went  on ;  cheerfully- 
disposed  people  even  sang,  though  that  was  regarded 
as  unseemly;  in  the  rooms  devoted  to  refreshment 
after  the  bath  they  played  knuckle-bones,  or  dice,  or 
ball,  sometimes  even  cottabus,  for  which  game  wine  was 
necessary,  and  hence  we  must  infer  that  opportunity 
for  wine  drinking  was  also  given  there  in  later  times. 

Towards  sunset,  or  in  winter  after  sunset,  they 
returned  home  for  the  principal  meal,  or  else  went  to 
the  house  of  some  friend  who  had  invited  guests.  In 
the  latter  case  the  meal  was  generally  a  good  deal 
prolonged,  and  followed  by  drinking;  which  extended 
far  into  the  night.  Those  who  dined  at  home  with 
their  wives  and  children  generally  finished  their  meal 
very  quickly,  and  as  the  custom  of  early  rising  pre- 
vailed, they  were  probably  hi  the  habit  of  retiring 
early,  unless  the  cares  of  business,  study,  or  other 
serious  pursuits  kept  some  of  them  awake  by  lamp- 
light ;  for  the  quiet  of  the  night  was  a  propitious 
time  for  serious  thought  after  the  noise  of  the  day, 
which  was  probably  as  great  in  ancient  times  in  the 
busy  south  as  it  is  to-day.  It  is  well-known  that 
Demosthenes  prepared  nearly  ah1  his  speeches  at  night. 

There  were  also  many  other  occupations,  partly 
serious,  partly  entertaining,  which  filled  up  the  life  of 
the  Greek  citizen.  At  the  time  of  the  highest  political 
development  of  Athens,  in  the  fifth  and  fourth  centuries, 
the  political  ftnd  judicial  duties  occupied  a  consider- 


DAILY   LIFE.  195 

able  amount  of  a  citizen's  time.  Even  if  he  did  not 
fill  any  of  the  numerous  unpaid  posts,  or  sit  in  the 
Council  of  Five  Hundred,  the  Boule,  whose  duty  it 
was  to  hold  preliminary  discussions,  he  still  had  to 
devote  about  forty  days  of  the  year  to  the  ordinary 
popular  assemblies,  in  addition  to  which  there  were 
often  extraordinary  meetings.  Supposing  the  lot 
should  have  appointed  him  to  be  one  of  the  6,000 
jurymen  (fjXiaa-Tai)  annually  chosen,  this  gave  him 
plenty  to  do  for  his  year  of  office,  for,  besides  the 
meetings,  he  had  to  acquire  information  about  various 
suits  at  which  he  had  to  give  his  opinion ;  and  we 
know,  chiefly  from  Aristophanes,  how  devoted  many 
citizens  were  to  their  judicial  duties,  and  how  all  their 
thoughts  and  actions  were  often  centred  in  this 
activity,  which  by  no  means  always  exercised  a  good 
moral  influence  over  them.  Rich  citizens  also  per- 
formed voluntary  public  services  (\etrovpylat},  which 
consisted  partly  in  entertaining  the  people  by  provid- 
ing scenic  or  choric  representations,  gymnastic  games, 
torchlight  processions,  etc.,  partly  in  important  services 
to  the  State,  such  as  equipping  a  man-of-war  at  their 
own  expense.  These  voluntary  services  not  only 
imposed  on  the  rich  citizens  considerable  money 
burdens,  which  in  later  times,  when  the  Athenian 
wealth  had  diminished,  could  no  longer  be  met  by 
one  individual,  but  also  took  up  a  great  deal  of 
their  time,  since  they  had  not  only  to  supply  the 
necessary  money,  but  also  to  superintend  and 
arrange  the  work.  Another  change  in  the  monotony 
of  daily  life  was  supplied  by  the  religious  festivals,  in 
which  the  Attic  calendar  was  unusually  rich,  and  the 
theatrical  and  other  performances  connected  with 
them,  with  which  we  shall  deal  later  on. 

Thooe  who  possessed  estates  in  the  country,  even 


196  GREEK    LIFE    AT   HOME. 

when  they  lived  in  town,  often  went  out  to  them  to 
look  after  the  management ;  hunting  and  bird-catching 
were  also  very  popular  occupations.  The  former 
especially  was  a  favourite  amusement.  Hunting  in 
ancient  times  was  very  different  from  what  it  is  at 
the  present  day;  this  is  partly  due  to  the  great 
difference  between  our  modern  firearms  and  the  hunt- 
ing implements  of  the  ancients,  partly  to  their  almost 
universal  custom  of  using  nets,  into  which  they  drove 
the  game  and  there  killed  it.  These  nets  were  used 
for  nearly  all  quadrupeds  which  they  hunted,  and  the 
strength  and  density  of  the  meshes  differed  according 
to  the  object  hunted,  as  well  as  the  method  of  arrange- 
ment. There  were  in  particular  bag  nets,  which 
were  drawn  together  behind  the  game  when  it  ran 
into  it,  and  falling  nets,  which  were  hung  loosely  on 
forked  sticks,  and  when  the  animal  ran  against  them 
feU  down  from  the  sticks  and  entangled  it.  Snares 
were  also  used  for  catching  not  only  hares  and 
foxes,  but  also  larger  four-footed  game,  such  as  boars 
and  stags.  In  consequence  of  this  custom  of  driving 
the  game,  and  bringing  it  to  bay,  bows  which  were 
calculated  for  longer  distances  were  of  very  little  use 
in  hunting  ;  the  animals  were  either  killed  by  a  light 
javelin  thrown  from  a  small  distance,  or,  if  the  game 
had  turned  to  bay,  with  a  hanger,  which  was  especially 
useful  hi  boar  hunting.  Dogs  were  used  for  starting 
the  game  and  driving  it  into  the  nets  at  bay,  and  the 
ancients  devoted  a  good  deal  of  care  to  their  training ; 
indeed,  the  important  part  played  by  dogs  in  Greek 
hunting  is  expressed  by  the  Greek  name  for  huntsman, 
which  means  "  dog  leader "  (Kwrf/o<i}.  They  used  to 
hunt  boars,  stags,  hares ;  beasts  of  prey,  such  as  wolves 
and  jackals,  were  only  hunted  when  they  were  danger- 
ous to  the  herds  ;  and  larger  annuals,  such  as  lions 


DAILY   LIFE.  197 

and  bears,  did  riot  exist  at  all  in  Greece  in  historic 
ages,  although  the  numerous  legends  of  lion  hunts 
bear  sufficient  testimony  to  their  existence  in  earlier 
times.  Birds  were  caught  with  nets,  snares,  traps,  and 
lime;  and,  since  Greece  was  by  no  means  rich  in 
quadrupeds  suitable  for  hunting,  bird-catching  was 
one  of  the  most  popular  occupations,  and  also  a  lucra- 
tive one.  On  the  other  hand,  fishing,  which  was 
carried  on  with  both  lines  and  nets,  seems  never  to 
have  become  a  regular  sport. 

We  have  already  alluded  to  the  practice  of  visiting 
the  gymnasia,  and  the  military  duties  of  the  citizens. 
There  were  also  public  houses  and  gaming  houses,  but 
these  do  not  appear  to  have  played  a  great  part  in 
the  lives  of  the  men.  The  drinking  parties  supplied 
sufficient  opportunity  for  social  meetings.  Those  who 
visited  the  public  drinking  bars  usually  did  so  for 
other  purposes  as  well — to  see  pretty  girls  or  to  meet 
companions  for  dice,  though  both  these  purposes 
could  be  effected  in  special  houses.  It  is  natural, 
therefore,  that  it  was  not  regarded  as  respectable  to 
visit  these  wine  taverns,  and  that  grave  men,  as  well 
as  youths  of  good  principle,  avoide  J  them.  Still,  even 
here  the  custom  seems  to  have  gradually  relaxed,  and 
though  the  Athenians  were  never  as  bad  as  the  in- 
habitants of  Byzantium,  who  were  accused  of  spending 
the  whole  day  at  the  bars,  yet  at  the  end  of  the  fourth 
and  in  the  third  century  B.C.  it  was  very  common  for 
young  men,  or  people  of  the  lower  classes,  to  dawdle 
about  in  the  wine  bars  and  gambling  houses. 

TraveUing  played  a  far  less  important  part  in  the 
life  of  the  Greeks  than  it  does  at  the  present  day.  In 
ancient  times  almost  the  only  inducement  for  travel- 
ling was  business.  The  merchant  plied  his  trade 
chiefly  as  a  sailor,  the  small  shopkeeper  travelled 


198  GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME 

about  the  country  as  a  pedlar.  In  the  heroic  period 
we  also  find  artisans  and  travelling  singers  on  their 
wanderings,  and  in  the  first  centuries  of  the  develop- 
ment of  art,  and  to  some  extent  even  afterwards, 
sculptors  and  architects  were  summoned  from  a 
distance  to  execute  commissions  under  the  orders 
of  the  State,  or  some  special  board  of  officials. 
But  those  who  were  neither  merchants  nor  artisans 
had  less  inducement  to  travel;  for  military  expeditions, 
which  of  course  were  numerous,  can  hardly  be  included 
among  journeys.  There  were  also  official  embassies 
and  pilgrimages  to  celebrated  shrines,  or  visits  to 
the  great  national  festivals.  Again,  Solon,  Herodotus, 
and  others  travelled  for  political  or  scientific  purposes, 
with  a  view  to  study  history  or  ethnography,  that  they 
might  learn  to  know  foreign  nations,  their  manners 
and  customs,  countries  and  buildings.  In  the  Alexan- 
drine period,  journeys  were  also  undertaken  for 
purposes  of  natural  science.  Our  modern  custom  of 
visiting  foreign  lands  for  the  sake  of  their  natural, 
beauty  was  unknown  in  Greek  antiquity,  but  we  must 
not  on  that  account  suppose  that  the  ancients  had  no 
feeling  for  natural  beauty.  The  Odyssey  gives  a 
picture  of  travel  in  heroic  times ;  the  common  man 
trudges  along  on  foot,  while  the  rich  man  goes  in  his 
carriage,  drawn  by  horses  or  mules,  and  the  fact  that 
the  latter  was  possible  even  in  the  mountainous  Pelo- 
ponnesus, proves  that  even  at  that  period  good  roads 
must  have  existed  there.  The  Greeks  never  attained 
as  great  perfection  in  road-making  as  the  Romans ; 
apparently  those  roads  were  kept  in  best  condition 
which  led  to  the  national  sanctuaries,  and  here  regular 
tracks  were  cut  out  of  the  rocky  ground,  and  there 
were  places  for  passing  other  carriages,  halting  places, 
etc.  This  was  not,  however,  the  case  with  all  the 


DAILY  LIFE.  199 

roads,  and  we  must  not  assume  that  ancient  Greece 
possessed  a  well-kept  complicated  network  of  streets, 
such  as  the  practical  Romans  constructed  at  every 
place  to  which  their  legions  came ;  indeed,  in  historic 
times  it  appears  thai  people  travelled  very  little  in 
carriages.  Of  course  these  had  to  be  used  on  long 
journeys,  especially  when  women  were  travelling;  then 
they  used  four-wheeled  carriages,  which  were  some- 
times used  for  sleeping  in ;  and  they  also  had  smaller 
two-wheeled  carts.  But  as  a  rule  men  travelled  on 
horse-back  or  mule-back,  and  very  often  merely  on 
foot,  followed  by  one  or  many  slaves,  who  carried  the 
baggage  required  for  the  journey,  in  particular  bed- 
coverings,  clothes,  utensils,  etc. 

If  it  was  necessary  to  spend  the  night  anywhere 
on  a  journey  of  several  days,  the  widespread  beautiful 
custom  of  hospitality  which  prevailed  in  ancient  times, 
and  made  men  regard  every  stranger  as  under  the 
protection  of  Zeus,  enabled  them  to  find  shelter ;  and, 
though  this  custom  could  not  maintain  itself  in  later 
times  in  its  full  extent,  yet  the  effects  of  it  still 
remained,  and  many  people  entered  into  a  sort  of 
treaty  of  hospitality  with  men  in  other  towns,  which 
was  usually  handed  on  to  the  descendants.  By  this 
they  pledged  themselves  on  the  occasion  of  visits 
from  members  of  one  or  the  other  family,  to  receive 
them  in  their  houses  and  afford  them  the  rights 
of  hospitality  ;  some  little  token  of  recognition 
previously  agreed  on— such  as  a  little  tablet,  a  ring 
broken  into  two  halves,  or  something  else  of  the 
sort — was  used  in  such  cases  to  legitimise  the 
stranger.  Sometimes  whole  districts  entered  into 
a  league  of  this  kind  with  one  another,  or  one  single 
rich  man  became  the  "  guest-friend  "  of  some  foreign 
community,  and  entertained  them  when  they  came  to 


200  GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 

his  home.  The  service  of  the  "  guest-friend  "  was  not 
always  extended  so  far  as  to  supply  complete  enter- 
tainment to  the  stranger  as  well  as  lodging  ;  often  he 
only  supplied  the  lodging,  the  necessary  coverings  for 
the  bed,  and  the  use  of  the  fire,  which  could  not 
easily  be  procured,  but  in  other  respects  left  the 
guest,  if  he  had  brought  servants  with  him,  to  pro- 
vide for  himself;  some  additional  gifts  of  hospitality 
were  usually  sent  him.  Still  this  custom  of  "  guest- 
friendship  "  was  not  sufficient  to  supply  shelter  for  all 
travellers ;  therefore  inns  were  opened  in  large  trading 
cities,  near  harbours,  and  places  of  pilgrimage,  such 
as  Delos,  Delphi,  Olympia,  etc.,  where  strangers  were 
entertained  for  payment.  These  inns  were  of  very 
various  character — some  of  them  apparently  supph'ed 
only  rooms  and  a  little  furniture,  especially  bedsteads 
while  the  stranger  brought  his  own  bed  and  coverlets, 
and  had  to  provide  his  own  food  ;  others  supplied 
food  and  drink,  and  were  often  houses  of  ill-fame,  and 
in  consequence  it  is  natural  that  the  position  of  inn- 
keeper should  have  been  generally  looked  down  upon 
in  Greek  antiquity.  Probably  these  inns  were  not 
particularly  pleasant  places  to  stay  in ;  very  often  the 
landlord  cheated  the  traveUers,  and  it  was  customary 
to  arrange  the  price  of  everything  beforehand ;  there 
were  also  inns  which '  were  used  as  hiding-places 
by  robbers  and  thieves,  and  thus  might  prove  dan- 
gerous quarters  for  the  guests.  Another  disagreeable 
accompaniment  of  southern  inns,  even  in  the  present 
day,  is  hinted  at  by  Aristophanes  in  the  "  Frogs," 
when  Dionysus,  on  his  journey  to  Hades,  inquires  for 
the  bins  in  which  there  are  fewest  fleas.  TraveUers  do 
not  seem  to  have  troubled  themselves  about  passports  ; 
a  legitimation  was  only  necessary  when  the  town  to 
which  they  were  going  was  engaged  in  war,  or  when 


DAILY   LIFE.  201 

they  went  into  a  hostile  country  in  time  of  war.  But 
to  travel  at  all  at  such  times  was  not  advisable, 
for  the  roads,  which  at  no  time  were  specially  safe, 
were  then  infested  by  travelling  mercenaries  or 
marauders.  Sometimes  travellers  had  to  submit  to 
an  examination  of  their  luggage.  Official*?  generally 
farmed  out  the  tolls  to  private  undertakers,  and  these 
therefore  had.  or  at  any  rate  took,  the  right,  if  they 
suspected .  travellers  of  trying  to  smuggle  dutiable 
articles,  to  stop  them  and  examine  their  luggage,  and 
sometimes  even  to  open  letters  which  they  had  by 
them. 


TX* 


CHAPTER    VI. 

MEALS  AND   SOCIAL  ENTERTAINMENTS. 

Banquets — The  Various  Courses — The  Symposium — Its  Character — 
Conversation — Music — Entertainments — Jugglers — Flute-Girls— 
Kiddles — Games — Excessive  Drinking. 

AT  Athens,  and  probably  throughout  Greece — except, 
perhaps,  at  Sparta — the  chief  meal  of  the  day  was 
taken  in  the  evening.  This  was  not,  however,  the 
case  in  the  Homeric  period,  when  it  was  taken  at 
mid-day,  and  the  evening  meal  was  of  less  import- 
ance. The  customs  of  the  heroic  age  differed  in 
many  respects  from  those  of  later  times.  In  par- 
ticular, the  practice  of  sitting  on  chairs  at  meals  then 
prevailed,  and,  in  fact,  there  was  no  large  common 
table  used  by  all,  but  each  guest  had  his  own  little 
table  before  him,  on  which  the  attendants  placed  the 
food  which  had  been  carved  at  a  special  board  used 
for  the  purpose.  Another  difference  is  that,  though 
the  Homeric  heroes,  in  accordance  with  the  condition 
of  their  times,  which  laid  special  stress  on  the  pleasures 
of  the  senses,  cared  a  good  deal  for  plentiful  food  and 
drink,  and  though  mil  cups  were  continually  circling 
at  the  meals,  still  the  regular  drinking  parties  which 
were  common  in  later  times,  and  which  followed  the 
meal  itself,  were  quite  unknown  in  the  heroic  age. 

In  considering  the  meals  of  the  historical  period, 
particularly  at  Athens,  we  must  remember  that  we 
are  dealing  specially  with  large  common  banquets, 
which  were  very  frequent  among  men,  and  not  with 


MEALS  AND   SOCIAL   ENTERTAINMENTS.  203 

the  usual  family  meal,  which  the  master  of  the  house 
took  in  the  circle  of  his  family.  We  know  very  little 
of  the  proceedings  at  these  family  dinners,  and  that 
only  from  works  of  art.  On  Greek  reliefs  on  tomb- 
stones we  often  find,  from  the  classical  to  the  Imperial 
period,  representations  of  the  family  meal,  where  the 
master  of  the  house  lies  on  his  couch,  his  wife  sitting 
on  it  at  his  feet,  for  it  was  not  considered  correct  for 
women  to  lie  down  at  meals  as  the  men  did,  and  when 
we  see  on  works  of  art  women  lying  down  along  with 
the  men,  we  may  be  certain  that  these  are  hetaerae, 
who  were  not  bound  by  the  same  rules  of  custom. 
The  children  of  the  house  sat  round  the  table  on 
chairs.  But  as  a  rule,  the  wife  and  children  only 
dined  hi  the  most  ultimate  family  circle ;  when  guests 
were  invited  they  dined  alone  in  the  women's  apart- 
ments, and  only  on  some  few  occasions,  especially 
weddings  and  family  festivals,  were  the  women 
allowed  to  appear  before  the  men. 

The  custom  of  entertainments  for  men  alone  was 
far  more  common  in  antiquity  than  at  the  present 
day;  for  these  banquets  took  the  place  not  only  of 
our  parties  and  other  social  gatherings,  but  they 
also  gave  the  men  an  opportunity,  especiaUy  in  the 
drinking  which  followed,  while  sitting  together  over 
their  wine,  to  discuss  at  their  leisure  both  serious  and 
frivolous  matters.  There  were  also  plenty  of  festive 
occasions  which  gave  opportunities  for  these  common 
banquets ;  a  public  or  private  sacrifice  was  a  very 
common  excuse,  if  only  because  the  flesh  of  the 
victim — of  which,  as  a  rule,  only  the  entrails  were 
burnt — could  be  best  made  use  of  in  this  manner. 
There  were  also  birthdays,  funerals,  victories  in  some 
contest  or  game,  departure  or  return  from  a  journey 
of  a  friend,  etc. ;  all  these  occasions  were  celebrated 


204  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME 

by  feasts,  and  there  were  also  great  public  banquets, 
which  were  usually  of  a  simpler  character,  owing  to 
the  number  of  guests  and  the  fact  that  the  expenses 
were  publicly  defrayed.  Besides  these  meals,  to  which 
individuals  invited  their  friends  or  relations,  picnics 
were  very  common.  Very  often  all  who  participated 
sent  baskets  of  provisions  into  the  house  of  one  who 
gave  up  his  rooms  for  the  purpose  ;  but  it  was  even 
commoner  for  each  to  contribute  a  certain  share  of 
money,  and  thus  to  defray  the  expenses  of  the  meal, 
which  was  taken  at  the  house  of  one  of  the  par- 
ticipants, or  of  some  obliging  hetaera.  We  do  not 
know  what  arrangement  was  made  about  the  wine, 
and  whether  the  expenses  of  this  were  also  defrayed 
out  of  the  general  charge. 

Generally  speaking,  in  the  fifth  and  fourth  centuries 
there  was  a  great  deal  of  simple  and  pleasant  social 
intercourse;  friends  were  invited  without  any  ceremony, 
during  the  course  of  the  day,  to  come  to  the  evening 
meal.  If  they  did  not  appear  at  the  appointed  hour, 
the  meal  began  without  them,  and  if  the  guest  put 
in  his  appearance  later  on,  this  was  regarded  as  a 
matter  of  coarse.  It  seems  not  to  have  been  unusual 
to  go  even  uninvited  to  the  meal  or  to  the  Symposium 
which  followed  it,  and  one  of  the  speakers  in  Plato's 
"  Symposium  "  suggests  the  following  version  of  a  line 
in  Homer : — 

"  To  the  feasts  of  the  good,  the  good  unbidden  go." 

Sometimes  idle  fellows,  such  as  the  parasites  who 
were  always  hunting  for  a  dinner,  made  too  liberal  use 
of  this  hospitality,  or  persons  made  their  appearance 
who  did  not  suit  with  the  rest  of  the  company  and 
would  have  disturbed  the  general  harmony.  In  such 
cases  the  door  keeping  slave  received  the  order  to 


MEALS   AND   SOCIAL   ENTERTAINMENTS.  205 

send  away  certain  persons,  saying,  "  My  master  is  not 
at  home,"  or  else,  "  He  has  already  retired  to  rest." 

The  usual  course  of  proceedings  at  one  of  these 
banquets  was  as  follows.  The  invited  guests,  who 
according  to  custom  had  previously  attended  the  bath, 
first  took  their  places  sitting  on  the  couches  placed 
ready  for  them.  The  slaves  of  the  host,  or  even  of 
the  guests,  who  often  brought  them  to  help  wait  at 
table,  then  took  off'  their  masters'  sandals  or  shoes, 
and  as  the  dust  of  the  street  might  have  soiled  their 
feet,  which  were  but  slightly  protected  by  the  soles, 
these  were  washed  once  more  by  the  slaves,  a  proceed- 
ing which  was  the  more  necessary,  as  in  lying  down 
they  often  rested  on  couches  covered  with  very 
valuable  coverlets.  Hereupon  they  lay  down,  as  a 
rule  two  guests  on  one  sofa,  but  the  monuments 
often  show  us  three  or  even  more  persons  on  a  single 
couch,  and  we  cannot  always  determine  with  certainty 
whether  the  artist  has  adhered  to  the  actual  practice 
or  introduced  arbitrary  changes  of  his  own.  In  lying 
down  they  rested  on  their  left  elbow,  or  on  numerous 
cushions  at  their  back  ;  the  right  arm  was  left  free,  in 
order  to  take  the  food  from  the  table  and  reach  it 
to  the  mouth ;  but  plates,  dishes,  cups,  etc.,  were  also 
taken  in  the  left  hand.  When  the  guests  had  all  lain 
down  and  washed  their  hands  in  bowls  handed  round 
for  the  purpose,  the  little  three-legged  dining  tables 
were  brought  in,  which  were  always  a  little  lower  than 
the  sofas.  On  these  the  food  was  arranged  in  dishes 
or  plates,  and  always  cut  up  small,  for  forks  were 
never  used  at  table,  but  only  in  the  kitchen  by  the 
cooks  for  carving  the  meat,  whilst  the  guests  made 
use,  instead,  of  a  spoon  or  sometimes  of  a  piece  of  bread 
hollowed  out,  and  very  seldom  used  a  knife.  Table 
cloths  and  napkins  were  unknown ;  the  place  of  the 


206  GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 

latter  was  taken  by  soft  dough,  on  which  the  fingers 
were  rubbed.  At  large  banquets,  sometimes  towels 
and  water  for  washing  the  hands  were  handed  round 
between  the  courses,  and  this  was  always  done  at  the 
end  of  a  meal.  The  practice  of  using  the  fingers  for 
eating  made  this  indispensable. 

Luxurious  living,  which  was  of  course  unknown 
at  Sparta,  was  far  less  common  at  Athens,  too, 
than  in  many  other  Greek  states,  such  as  Thessaly, 
and  in  particular  Sicily  and  Magna  Graecia.  In 
these  places  the  gastronomic  art  was  cultivated 
to  a  high  degree,  and  there  were  books  in  which 
the  various  kinds  of  joints  and  ragouts,  fishes  and 
sweets,  etc.,  were  enumerated  in  verse,  sometimes 
in  a  comic  manner  and  sometimes  with  due  serious- 
ness. The  Boeotians,  on  the  other  hand,  had  a  bad 
name  for  consuming  great  quantities  of  food,  and  this 
of  a  coarse  description.  At  Athens,  in  the  classic 
period,  meals  were,  as  a  rule,  simple  and  modest. 
In  the  various  descriptions  of  banquets  handed  down 
to  us  by  different  writers,  no  mention  is  ever  made  of 
the  cooking,  and  the  simplicity  of  Plato's  meals  may 
be  inferred  from  the  somewhat  malicious  remark 
commonly  made  that  those  who  had  dined  with  Plato 
would  be  in  excellent  health  next  morning. 

The  meat  most  in  use  was  that  of  the  sacrificial 
animals,  especially  oxen,  sheep,  goats,  and  swine  ;  this 
last  was  very  popular,  both  roast  and  salted  or  smoked, 
and  was  also  used  for  sausages.  The  ancients  were 
acquainted  with  various  kinds  of  sausage;  we  find 
allusions  to  these  even  in  Homer ;  they  were  also 
acquainted  with  the  practice  of  adulterating  them  by 
introducing  the  flesh  of  dogs  or  asses.  In  poultry, 
they  had  fowls,  ducks,  geese,  quails,  and  also  wild 
birds,  such  as  partridges  and  wood  pigeons;  the 


MEALS  AND   SOCIAL   ENTERTAINMENTS.  207 

special  favourites  were  thrushes,  which  were  a  very 
popular  dainty  in  the  poultry  market,  where  dis- 
honest poulterers  blew  the  birds  up  in  order  to  make 
them  seem  fatter  and  in  better  condition.  A  favourite 
kind  of  game  was  hare,  which  is  very  frequently 
mentioned ;  they  even  had  a  proverb,  "  To  live  in  the 
midst  of  roast  hare,"  which  means  to  be  in  a  land  of 
plenty.  Fish,  too,  was  eaten  in  great  quantities.  In 
the  Homeric  period  the  taste  for  it  did  not  yet  exist, 
but  in  later  times  it  was  very  much  sought  after.  A 
special  delicacy  was  eels,  from  Lake  Copais,  which 
are  often  mentioned,  and  were  favourites  with  all  the 
Athenian  gowrmets.  Otherwise,  sea  fish  was  pre- 
ferred to  fresh-water  fish,  and  there  seems  no  end  to 
the  various  kinds  mentioned,  which  were  also  pre- 
pared in  many  different  ways.  The  inexhaustible 
wealth  of  the  neighbouring  sea  permitted  even  the 
poor  people  to  have  fish  hi  plenty ;  in  particular,  the 
delicate  sardines,  which  were  caught  in  the  harbour 
of  Phalerum,  and  which  were  cheap  and  also  quickly 
prepared,  formed  an  important  article  of  food  for  the 
Athenians.  There  were  also  great  quantities  of  salt 
and  smoked  fish,  which  were  prepared  in  the  large 
smoking  establishments  of  the  Black  Sea  and  on  the 
coast  of  Spain,  and  brought  by  traders  to  Greece. 
The  salted  tunnies,  herrings,  etc.,  were  excellent  and 
also  cheap,  and  therefore  very  common  as  food  for 
the  people.  In  the  houses  of  the  richer  classes  the 
finer  kinds  were  also  used — various  sorts  of  fish 
sauces,  caviar,  oysters,  turtles,  etc.,  which  added  to 
the  variety  of  the  bills  of  fare,  and  could  satisfy  even 
the  daintiest  palates. 

Under  the  heading  of  vegetable  food,  we  must 
first  of  all  consider  bread  and  porridge.  The  kinds  of 
grain  chiefly  used  were  wheat  and  barley,  as  well  as 


208  GREEK   LIFE  AT   HOME 

spelt ;  rye  was  not  cultivated  in  Greece,  and  rye 
bread  was  regarded  as  food  for  barbarians.  Bread 
was  made  chiefly  of  wheat,  and  was  white  or  brown, 
according  to  the  greater  or  less  addition  of  bran  and 
the  finer  quality  of  the  flour.  But  the  common 
people  did  not  eat  much  wheaten  bread;  the  chief 
daily  food  of  the  poorer  people  was  a  kind  of  barley 
cake,  called  maza,  a  sort  of  porridge,  which  was 
moistened  and  dissolved  in  water,  and  of  which  there 
were  various  kinds  with  different  savoury  additions. 
This  porridge  seems  to  have  resembled  the  polenta 
still  used  in  the  south,  but  was  probably  not  much 
eaten  by  the  richer  classes.  They  had  also  green 
vegetables  and  salads,  asparagus,  radishes,  mush- 
rooms, lentils,  peas,  lupins,  etc.  These  leguminous 
vegetables  supplied  nourishing  fare  for  poor  people, 
and  were  therefore  sold  by  street  cooks  hot  from  the 
fire,  at  a  low  price.  We  find  even  in  antiquity  the 
fondness  for  onions  and  garlic  still  shown  by  southern 
nations,  and  these  were  eaten  raw  with  bread.  Be- 
sides salt,  pepper,  and  vinegar,  various  spices  were 
used  to  flavour  the  dishes,  such  as  sesame,  coriander, 
caraway,  mustard,  etc.,  and  also  silphiurn,  which  was 
much  sought  after,  but  very  expensive,  and  was  im- 
ported from  Gyrene,  but  could  no  longer  be  obtained 
at  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era.  Olive  oil  was 
used  for  cooking. 

The  second  course,  which  played  an  important  part 
at  large  dinners,  consisted  of  cheese  (butter  was  not  in 
use  for  food),  all  kinds  of  fruit,  and  cakes.  Athens 
was  especially  distinguished  for  its  cakes,  because  the 
excellent  honey  of  Hymettus  supplied  good  material  for 
it :  confectioners  knew  how  to  make  the  most  various 
kinds  of  cakes,  and  often  produced  them  in  the  shapes 
of  animals,  human  beings,  and  other  objects. 


MEALS   AND   SOCIAL    ENTERTAINMENTS.  209 

It  is  commonly  supposed  that  the  Greeks  did  not 
drink  at  all  during  their  meals,  but  this  is  an  untenable 
opinion.  The  great  number  of  salt  or  highly-spiced 
dishes  which  they  had,  must  of  necessity  have  induced 
thirst.  In  fact,  many  allusions  in  the  writers  show  us 
that  some  drinking  went  on  during  dinner,  but  in  a 
very  moderate  degree  when  compared  with  the 
symposium  which  followed  the  meal,  and  only  with  a 
view  to  quenching  thirst.  In  any  case,  when  the  last 
course  was  brought  in,  they  took  a  draught  of  unmixed 
wine  in  honour  of  the  "  good  genius."  Then  the  tables 
were  taken  away,  and,  if  no  drinking  party  followed, 
the  guests  arose  from  their  couches  after  once  more 
washing  their  hands.  Usually,  however,  these  banquets 
were  followed  by  a  symposium. 

The  proceedings  at  the  symposium  were  generally 
as  follows : — The  servants  in  attendance  removed  the 
larger  tables  Avhich  had  been  used  at  dinner,  and 
brought  in  instead  other  smaller  tables,  which  were 
also  three-legged,  but  had  round  tops.  On  these  they 
arranged  the  drinking  cups,  bowls,  and  cooling  vessels, 
plates  with  all  kinds  of  dessert,  and  little  dainties  that 
would  induce  thirst.  Then  wreaths  were  given  to  the 
guests  to  adorn  their  heads,  and  sometimes  to  put 
round  their  necks,  and  sweet-scented  ointments  were 
handed  round.  While  the  guests  were  occupied  in 
adorning  themselves,  the  servants  brought  in  the  wine 
in  large  mixing  bowls;  generally  three  at  the  beginning 
of  the  feast,  and  later  more,  as  occasion  required.  The 
customary  drink  at  these  feasts  was  a  mixture  of  wine 
and  water.  Even  at  the  present  day  southern  nations 
seldom  drink  strong  wine  unmixed  with  water,  and 
in  ancient  times  unmixed  wine  was  only  drunk  in 
very  small  quantities ;  at  the  symposium,  when  it 
was  customary  to  drink  deep  and  long,  they  had  only 


210  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

mixed  wine,  sometimes  taking  equal  parts  of  wine  and 
water,  and  sometimes,  which  was  even  commoner,  three 
parts  of  water  to  two  parts  of  wine.  Generally,  at  the 
beginning  of  every  symposium,  a  president,  or  "  Sym- 

posiarch,"  was  ap- 
pointed by  lot  or 
dice  to  take  com- 
mand for  the  rest 
of  the  evening, 
and  it  was  his 
duty  to  determine 
the  strength  of 
the  mixture,  for 
this  might  be  of 
various  kinds,  as 
weak  even  as  two 
parts  of  wine  to 
five  of  water,  or 
one  to  three,  or 
even  one  part  of 
wine  to  five  of 
water,  which  last 
was  certainly  a 
somewhat  taste- 
less drink,  and  was 
contemptuously 
called  "frog's 
wine."  In  early 
times  it  was  usual  to  put  the  water  first  into  the 
mixing  bowl  and  pour  the  wine  upon  it ;  afterwards 
the  reverse  proceeding  took  place. 

The  commoner  sorts  of  wine  were  very  cheap,  and 
in  consequence  it  was  the  universal  drink,  of  which 
even  the  poor  people  and  slaves  partook  ;  better  kinds 
were  more  expensive,  and  the  best  came  from  the 
islands,  especially  Lesbos  and  Chios;  Rhodian  and 


MEALS  AND  SOCIAL  ENTERTAINMENTS. 


211 


Thasian  wines  were  also  largely  exported.  Beer  was 
by  no  means  unknown  to  antiquity ;  in  Egypt,  Spain, 
Gaul,  Thrace,  etc.,  they  brewed  a  malt  liquor  which 
must  have  had 
some  resemblance 
to  our  beer,  but 
the  Greeks  dis- 
liked this  drin  V, 
and  always  spoke 
of  it  contemptu- 
ously. The  gift 
of  Dionysus  re- 
mained the  na- 
tional drink  of  the 
Greeks,  but  it 
differed  in  many 
respects  from  our 
wines  of  the  pre-  _ 
sent  day.  Much 
of  the  ancient 
wine  must  have 
resembled  in  taste 
the  resin  wine 
of  modern  Egypt, 
since  resin  was 
added  to  it,  and 
as  the  large  clay 
casks  in  which  the  wine  was  exported  were  painted 
over  internally  with  pitch,  this  must  of  necessity 
have  given  a  taste  to  the  wine.  Nor  did  they  know 
how  to  clear  their  wine ;  it  was  usually  thick,  and, 
in  order  to  be  made  at  all  bright,  had  to  be  filtered 
through  a  fine  sieve  or  cloth  each  time  before  it  was 
used.  To  return  to  the  symposium.  Figs.  97  and 
98,  taken  from  pictures  on  the  outside  of  painted 
cups,  give  representations  of  drinking  parties.  In 


212  GREEK   LIFE  AT  HOME. 

Fig.  97  we  see  three  bearded  men  with  wreaths  lying 
near  one  another ;  in  front  of  them  are  two  bowls,  a 
wine  can,  a  cooling  vessel,  a  footstool,  and  a  shoe.  The 
man  on  the  right  holds  a  cup  in  his  left  hand  and  puts 
his  right  hand  to  his  head,  which  is  bent  backwards  ; 
his  open  mouth  shows  that  he  is  supposed  to  be  sing- 
ing. The  guest  in  the  middle  is  playing  energetically 
on  the  double  flute,  the  one  on  the  right  holds  a  lyre, 
and  in  his  right  hand  the  rod,  but  he  is  not  striking 
the  strings  ;  near  him,  on  the  wall,  hangs  a  flute-case. 
Fig.  98  also  represents  three  men,  and  in  front  of  them 
a  bowl,  a  can,  a  cooling  vessel,  another  vessel  of  curious 
shape,  and  three  shoes.  The  man  on  the  left  is  stretch- 
ing out  his  right  hand  with  a  cup  to  a  boy  with  a  wine 
can  near  him ;  the  one  in  the  middle  also  holds  a  cup 
and  turns  in  conversation  to  the  one  on  the  right,  who 
in  his  right  hand  holds  a  goblet  (O-KV^O^). 

The  symposium  began  with  three  libations,  offered 
to  the  Olympian  deities,  the  heroes,  and  to  Zeus  Soter ; 
sometimes  incense  was  burnt  meantime,  and  if  the 
flute  girl,  who  as  a  rule  did  not  make  her  appearance 
,till  afterwards,  was  present  at  the  beginning  of  the 
symposium,  the  solemn  proceedings  were  probably 
accompanied  by  flute  playing.  For  these  libations 
they  used  three  mixing  bowls  which  had  previously 
been  made  ready,  taking  one  libation  from  each ;  after 
the  libation  from  the  first,  they  sang  in  chorus  a  short 
hymn  in  praise  of  Dionysus  (Paean),  which  was 
repeated  if,  as  often  happened,  a  new  mixture  had 
to  be  prepared  in  the  course  of  the  evening.  The 
drinking,  as  well  as  the  rest  of  the  procedure  was 
carried  on  according  to  certain  fixed  rules,  which 
somewhat  resembled  those  still  practised  by  German 
students.  If  a  president  or  syrnposiarch  was  chosen, 
he  had  to  appoint  not  only  the  strength  of  the 


MEALS  AND   SOCIAL  ENTERTAINMENTS.  213 

mixture,  but  also  the  kind  of  cup,  whether  large  or 
small,  from  which  it  was  to  be  drunk,  and,  in  fact, 
generally  undertook  the  direction  of  the  conversation, 
the  toasts,  forfeits,  etc.  We  generally  find  on  the 
monuments  flat,  two-handled  cups  in  use  at  the 
symposium,  but  sometimes  also  large,  deep  goblets, 
and  after  drinking  for  some  time,  it  seems  that  they 
even  occasionally  drank  from  the  capacious  vessels, 
really  destined  for  cooling  the  wine  by  means  of 
snow-water,  and  that  practised  drinkers,  such  as 
Socrates  and  Alcibiades,  could  empty  them  at  a 
draught.  It  was  a  very  common  custom  to  empty 
goblets  thus,  and  many  drinking  cups  were  shaped 
in  such  a  way  that  they  must  be  emptied  at 
once,  as  they  could  not  stand  upright.  Every 
guest  had  to  submit  to  the  ordinances  of  the 
symposiarch  ;  he  exercised  unlimited  authority  in  the 
matter  of  drinking,  unless,  indeed,  the  arrangement 
had  been  made  from  the  first  that  everyone  should 
drink  little  or  much,  as  he  pleased,  during  that 
evening.  Those  who  disobeyed  the  commands  of  the 
president  had  to  submit  to  some  punishment,  which 
consisted  either  in  drinking  a  certain  quantity,  or 
else  was  directed  at  some  personal  infirmity;  thus, 
for  instance,  a  bald  man  was  told  to  comb  his  hair,  a 
stammerer  to  sing,  a  lame  man  to  hop,  etc.  This 
compulsion  of  submitting  to  the  ordinances  of  the 
president  naturally  led  to  very  deep  drinking,  and 
even  the  mixture  of  the  water  with  the  wine  was 
insufficient  defence  against  this  practice.  It  was 
also  very  common  to  drink  to  one  another,  and 
propose  the  health  of  friends  or  popular  girls.  It 
was  customary  for  the  drinking  to.  circulate  to  the 
right,  and  this  practice  was  also  kept  up  for  all 
other  performances  which  were  expected  from 


214  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

every  guest,  such  as  the  singing  of  songs,  guessing  of 
riddles,  etc. 

Though  the  main  object  of  the  symposium  was, 
undoubtedly,  the  drinking,  yet  we  must  not  compare 
the  Greek  symposia  with  the  wild  drinking  bouts 
customary  in  Germany  during  the  middle  ages,  which 
continued  till  the  17th  century.  In  consequence  of 
the  weakness  of  the  mixture,  it  must  have  taken  some 
time  for  the  intoxicating  effects  to  make  themselves 
apparent.  Moreover,  there  were  various  kinds  of 
amusement  which  caused  the  drinking  to  fall  somewhat 
into  the  background,  but  these  naturally  varied  a  good 
deal  according  to  the  degree  of  culture  and  character 
of  the  guests.  Symposia,  such  as  those  described  by 
Xenophon  and  Plato,  at  which  there  was  very  deep 
drinking,  but  also  really  intellectual  conversation  and 
discussion  of  deep  problems,  are,  of  course,  idealised ; 
and,  even  in  Plato's  Symposium,  the  presence  of  the 
flute  girl  shows  that  the  sensual  element  was  regarded 
as  well  as  the  intellectual  entertainment.  As  a  rule, 
music  played  an  important  part  at  the  symposia. 
Even  in  the  Homeric  period,  song  was  an  important 
feature  of  the  banquet.  The  cunning  singer,  who  sang 
the  stories  of  gods  and  heroes  to  the  accompaniment 
of  the  "  lyre,"  and  who  was  listened  to  eagerly  by  all, 
was  never  absent  from  any  banquet  at  which  a  great 
number  of  guests  were  present.  In  historic  times,  the 
musical  entertainment  took  a  different  character,  for 
the  guests,  instead  of  merely  listening,  took  part  in  it 
themselves,  singing  generally  as  weh1  as  playing. 
There  were  three  kinds  of  singing ;  choruses,  sung  by 
all  together,  such  as  the  Paean  already  mentioned ; 
part  songs,  in  which  all  shared,  not  together,  but  each 
in  his  turn  ;  and  solos,  sung  by  those  who  had  special 
musical  ability  and  education.  These  solos  were 


MEALS   AND   SOCIAL   ENTERTAINMENTS.  215 

especially  popular;  the  singer  accompanied  himself 
with  the  harp,  and  here,  too,  they  adhered  to  the 
custom  of  always  passing  to  the  right  the  harp  and 
the  myrtle  bough,  which  the  singer  had  to  hold  in 
his  hand  during  the  performance.  Of  especial  im- 
portance among  these  solo  songs,  from  a  literary 
point  of  view,  were  the  "  Scolia,"  which  were  usually 
of  a  serious  character,  either  religious,  patriotic,  or  of 
a  general  moral  nature.  A  well-known  scolion  sang 
the  praises  of  the  two  conspirators  who  murdered 
the  tyrant  Hipparchus  ;  it  began  as  follows : — 

"In  myrtle  veiled  I  will  the  falchion  wear ; 

For  thua  the  patriot  sword 
Harmodius  and  Aristogeiton  bare, 

When  they  the  tyrant's  bosom  gored  ; 
And  bade  the  men  of  Athens  be 
Regenerate  in  equality. 
Beloved  Harmodius,  oh,  never 
Shall  death  be  thine,  who  livest  for  ever. 
Thy  shade,  as  men  have  told,  inherits 
The  islands  of  the  blessed  spirits, 
Where  deathless  live  the  glorious  dead, 
Achilles,  fleet  of  foot,  and  Diomed."  * 

Other  songs  celebrated  the  praise  of  wine,  the  joys  oi 
love,  the  happiness  of  friendship ;  there  were  also  special 
drinking  songs,  some  composed  by  very  great  poets, 
such  as  Alcaeus,  Sappho,  Anacreon,  Simonides,  Pindar, 
who  composed  them  in  various  metres.  A  vase 
painting  shows  us  a  reveller  lying  on  a  couch  with  a 
wreath  on  his  head,,  holding  a  lyre  in  his  hand,  and 
singing,  while  raising  his  head  as  though  inspired ;  the 
words  written  underneath  by  the  vase  painter  show  us 
that  he  is  singing  an  ode  by  Theognis  hi  praise  of  a 
beautiful  boy.  Here,  too,  changes  in  taste  took  place 
in  the  course  of  time ;  many  of  the  old  songs  were 

*  Callistratus,  translated  by  Elton. 


216  GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 

regarded  as  old-fashioned,  even  in  the  time  of  Aris- 
tophanes, and  he  who  when  his  turn  came  sang  a 
song  by  Sim  onides,  instead  of  some  grar.d  air  from 
Euripides,  was  regarded  as  quite  behind  the  times. 

Very  commonly  flute  or  harp  girls  were  present  at 
the  symposium,  and  entertained  the  guests  by  playing 
and  singing,  and  probably  also  by  dancing.  These  girls 
were  either  specially  invited  arid  paid  by  the  host  for 
the  evening,  or  else  entered  of  their  own  accord  a  house 
where  they  imagined  there  was  a  merry  company,  or 
they  were  sometimes  introduced  by  guests  who  came 
late  in  the  evening.  Thus,  in  Plato's  Symposium  we 
find  a  flute  girl  present  at  the  beginning ;  she  accom- 
panies the  introductory  libation  with  her  playing,  but 
one  of  the  guests  suggests  that  they  should  send  her 
away,  and  let  her  either  play  to  herself  or  to  the  women 
in  their  own  apartments,  since  men  preferred  10  enter- 
tain each  other  by  sensible  conversation.  But  Plato 
was  almost  alone  in  this  opinion,  which  he  expresses 
far  more  strongly  in  another  place,  saying  that  educated 
men  did  not  require  flute  or  harp  girls  or  dancers,  or 
any  such  foolish  entertainment  while  drinking.  Most 
people  regarded  these  playing  girls  as  equally  indis- 
pensable at  the  symposium  with  the  entertainments 
and  wreaths,  and  accordingly  in  Plato's  banquet, 
towards  the  end  of  the  evening,  Alcibiades,  coming 
from  another  drinking  party,  already  in  a  state  of 
intoxication,  is  supported  by  a  flute  girl  who  accom- 
panies him.  On  the  vase  pictures  these  girls  are 
seldom  wanting  ;  and  these  pictorial  representations,  as 
well  as  other  allusions  to  the  symposia,  show  that  the 
presence  of  these  girls  was  not  due  only  to  a  desire  for 
music.  The  flute  and  harp  girls  were  almost  always 
hetaerae,  and  liberties  of  various  kinds  were  taken  with 
them  ;  for  instance,  a  guest  might  be  ordered  to  carry 


MEALS    AND    SOCIAL    ENTERTAINMENTS. 


217 


the  flute  girl  several  times  round  the  room,  or  she 
might  be  put  up  for  auction,  and  handed  over  to  the 
highest  bidder  as  his  property  for  the  evening;  and  in 
consequence  of  the  presence  of  these  girls  the  drinking 
parties  often  became  veritable  orgies,  in  which  Eros 
was  honoured  no  less  than  Dionysus.  The  vase  painters 
sometimes  give  us  a  picture  almost  too  truthful,  though 
this  degeneracy  of  custom  seems  to  have  increased 
rather  than  diminish- 
ed(in  later  times. 

Other  kinds  of 
amusements  were  also 
offered  to  the  guests 
at  the  symposia.  In 
the  "  Banquet "  of 
Xenophon,  at  an  early 
stage  of  the  proceed- 
ings, a  Syracusan  ap- 
pears, who  has  been 
invited  by  the  host, 
with  a  flute  girl,  a  FIG.  99. 

dancing   girl,   and    a 

beautiful  boy  who  plays  a  harp  and  dances.  They  play 
and  perform  pantomimic  dances;  in  particular,  there  is 
a  full  description  of  one  such  dance,  which  represents 
in  very  graceful  fashion  the  meeting  of  Ariadne  with 
Dionysus.  Conjurers,  too,  so-called  "  Thaumaturgists," 
show  their  skill  on  these  occasions.  The  dancing  girl 
in  Xenophon's  "  Banquet "  throws  twelve  rings  into  the 
air  while  dancing,  and  catches  them  all  in  turn ;  then 
she  performs  a  bold  sword  dance,  turning  head  over 
heels  into  a  stand  round  which  sharp  knives  are  set, 
and  out  again  in  the  same  fashion.  We  often  find 
similar  representations  on  vase  paintings ;  thus,  Fig.  99 
shows  a  girl  walking  on  her  hands  and  performing  a 


218  GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 

dangerous  dance  between  sharp  swords.  In  a  similar 
posture  the  woman  represented  in  Fig.  100  shoots  an 
arrow  with  her  toes  from  a  bow  held  between  her  feet. 
The  ancient  jugglers  seem  to  have  known  all  the  many 
tricks  which  are  still  admired  at  fairs  and  other  popular 
festivals,  such  as  swallowing  swords,  eating  fire,  etc. ; 
a  feat  unknown  at  the  present  day  was  writing  on  a 
quickly-revolving  potter's  wheel,  or  reading  something 
written  on  it.  It  was  very  common  to  invite  such 


FIG.  100. 

jugglers  at  weddings  or  after  feasts,  but  it  was  un- 
doubtedly a  confession  of  weakness  to  have  recourse 
to  such  trivialities  instead  of  carrying  on  an  intellectual 
and  interesting  conversation.  On  a  similar  low  level 
were  the  official  "  entertainers,"  who  in  ancient  times 
took  the  place  of  the  Court  fools  of  the  middle  ages. 
The  jokes  of  these  "  entertainers,"  who  travelled  from 
house  to  house,  from  meal  to  meal,  who  were  always 
hungry,  and  glad  to  supply  their  jokes  in  return  for 
entertainment  and  payment,  were  as  a  rule  very  poor 
and  shallow,  and  their  chief  point  seems  to  have 
consisted  in  leading  the  young  men  to  make  fun  of 
each  other,  and  to  submit  good-humouredly  to  jokes 
practised  upon  them. 


MEALS   AND   SOCIAL  ENTERTAINMENTS.  219 

On  a  higher  level  were  those  social  entertainments 
which  laid  the  intelligence  and  wit  of  the  participants 
under  contribution.  To  begin  with,  there  was  free 
conversation,  dealing  with  the  many  questions  of  the 
day,  poli tics,  literature,  etc.;  but  they  generally  avoided 
serious  subjects,  and  Anacreon  says : — 

"  That  man  hold  I  not  dear,  who  drinking  his  wine  from 

a  full  bowl, 

Ever  of  conquest  and  war  sings  but  the  dolorous  strain, 
But  who    the    glorious  gifts  of    the    Muses  and    fair 

Aphrodite, 
Mingling  together,  recalls  feelings  of  joy  and  of  love."* 

They  amused  themselves  with  games  requiring 
thought — riddles  and  such-like— as,  for  instance, 
naming  an  object  which  contained  a  certain  god's 
name,  or  singing  a  verse  in  which  one  particular  letter 
must  not  appear,  or  whose  first  and  last  syllables 
must  have  a  particular  meaning,  etc.  In  circles  where 
the  culture  was  above  the  average,  a  definite  subject 
was  sometimes  given  the  guests  for  oratorical  discus- 
sion. Here,  as  in  the  drinking  and  singing,  the 
turns  also  went  to  the  right  after  the  subject  had 
been  previously  discussed  and  fixed  by  all  together. 
The  appointed  tasks  were  of  various  kinds.  A 
favourite  amusement  seems  to  have  been  to  compare 
the  guests  present  with  particular  objects,  such  as 
mythical  monsters,  etc.,  and  here  opportunity  was 
given  for  showing  wit  and  making  innocent  jokes. 
Sometimes,  when  a  professional  "entertainer"  was 
present,  the  task  was  left  to  him,  but  as  he  was  not 
always  plentifully  supplied  with  wit,  it  often  happened 
that  the  poor  man,  who  practised  his  jokes  from  neces- 
sity, grew  quite  sad  at  the  disregard  of  his  witticisms. 

*  Translated  by  T.  J.  Arnold. 


220  GREEK    LIFE   AT   HOME. 

A  more  difficult  task,  and  one  making  greater  demand 
ou  the  intellect,  was  to  make  a  little  improvised 
speech  on  some  set  subject,  to  praise  or  blame  some 
particular  thing,  and  this  became  especially  common 
with  the  development  of  the  rhetorical  art.  Thus,  in 
the  "  Banquet "  of  Xenophon,  each  guest  has  to  say 
what  he  is  proud  of,  and  to  give  his  reasons;  in 
Plato's  symposium,  the  glorification  of  Eros  is  the 
task  appointed.  In  the  ages  of  the  Alexandrine 
learning,  this  even  led  to  learned  discussions,  in  which 
scientific  problems  of  all  kinds  were  treated  over  the 
cups.  Those  who  were  successful  in  these  intellectual 
contests,  who  solved  difficult  riddles,  etc.,  were  re- 
warded, receiving  wreaths  or  fillets,  or  sometimes 
kisses ;  on  the  other  hand,  the  symposiarch  inflicted 
punishments  on  those  who  were  unsuccessful,  and 
these  usually  consisted  in  drinking,  at  a  draught,  a 
whole  cupful  of  unmixed  wine,  or,  which  was  worse, 
wine  mixed  with  salt  water. 

There  were  also  a  great  number  of  games  played 
at  the  symposium,  and  also  at  other  times,  chiefly  by 
young  people.  The  one  which  was  the  most  popular 
at  the  symposia,  and  which  in  consequence  we  find  on 
numerous  monuments,  was  Cottabus,  a  game  intro- 
duced from  Sicily,  which  felL  into  disuse  during  the 
age  of  Alexander's  successors,  and  was  unknown  to 
the  Romans,  so  that  the  accounts  we  have  of  it  are 
somewhat  confused.  This  much  is  certain,  that  it 
consisted  in  skilfully  throwing  drops  of  wine  left  in 
the  cup  at  some  definite  goal,  and  producing  a  cer- 
tain effect  in  striking  it.  The  cup  was  held,  not  by 
the  foot,  but  by  one  handle  with  the  fingers,  and  they 
did  not  use  the  whole  arm  in  throwing  it,  but  only  the 
wrist,  or,  if  the  arm  was  bent,  only  the  lower  arm. 
There  were  various  ways  of  playing  this  game  ;  for  the 


MEALS  AND   SOCIAL   ENTERTAINMENTS.  221 

commonest,  they  seem  to  have  used  a  stand  something 
like  a  high  candelabrum  (see  the  one  represented  in 
Fig.  101),  the  shaft  of  which  could  be  screwed  higher  or 
lower  according  to  requirement.  On  the  top  of  it  was 
balanced,  placed  loosely  upon  it,  a  little  saucer  or 
bowl  of  brass,  and  the  wine  which  w»as  thrown  had  to 
fall  with  a  ringing  noise  upon  it,  and  throw  down 
the  disc  ;  it  is  clear,  from  various  vase  paintings,  that 
this  was  not  fastened  to  the  top,  since  we  see  girls  in 
the  act  of  laying  the  disc  on  the  top  of  the  shaft- 
This,  however,  was  not  enough  ;  various  complications 
were  added  to  increase  the  difficulty.  On  some  of 
the  cottabus  stands  they  fastened  the  figure  of  a 
slave,  called  "  Manes,"  made  of  brass,  which  must  also 
be  struck  in  throwing,  and  according  as  it  was  fast- 
ened on  the  shaft,  either  first  or  last.  Sometimes  the 
disc  on  to  which  the  wine  was  thrown  must,  when 
struck,  fall  down  on  to  another  small  scale  fixed  a 
little  lower  down,  and  the  sound  then  made,  accord- 
ing as  it  was  strong  or  weak,  was  regarded  as  a  kind 
of  oracle  in  love.  In  Fig.  101,  the  bearded  man  lying 
on  the  couch  is  in  the  act  of  throwing  the  wine  left  in 
his  cup,  which  he  holds  by  the  first  finger  of  the  right 
hand,  at  the  cottabus  stand.  Near  him  lies  a  youth 
with  a  thyrsus,  who  is  handing  fruit,  or  something 
of  the  kind,  to  a  woman  with  a  tambourine,  sitting  on 
a  cushion  in  front  of  him.  On  the  right  is  a  cup- 
bearer, a  naked  boy  with  a  wine  can.  Sometimes 
they  seem  to  have  spirted  the  wine  from  their  mouths 
instead  of  from  a  cup ;  or  they  set  little  saucers  or  nut- 
shells to  swim  empty  on  the  water,  and  tried  to  fill  them 
by  throwing  in  the  wine  drops  and  making  them  sink. 
This  occupation,  in  spite  of  the  great  popularity  it 
seems  to  have  had  in  the  fifth  and  fourth  centuries, 
can  but  be  regarded  as  a  very  unintellectual  one. 


MEALS   AND  SOCIAL  ENTERTAINMENTS.  223 

We  may  deal  at  once  with  the  other  most  import- 
ant games,  in  which  grown-up  people  took  part  in 
their  hours  of  leisure.  Many  of  these  were  also 
children's  games,  in  particular  the  game  of  ball,  which 
we  find  even  in  Homeric  times,  and  it  was  very  popular 
throughout  the  whole  of  antiquity,  especially  in  the 
hours  of  recreation  after  the  bath  or  after  physical 
exercises  in  the  gymnasium,  and  it  was  especially 
recommended  by  physicians  as  healthy  exercise.  Some 
other  games  also  bore  a  semi-gymnastic  character,  and 
will  therefore  be  mentioned  afterwards  under  the 
heading  of  gymnastics.  Games  of  skill  or  chance, 
which  were  played  with  boards,  figures,  dice,  etc., 
were  very  popular.  We  meet  with  these  board 
games,  which  were  already  known  to  the  Egyptians, 
even  in  the  Homeric  period.  In  later  times,  too,  they 
were  a  favourite  amusement,  and  we  often  find  them 
represented  on  ancient  monuments.  Among  the  various 
modes  of  playing  these,  some  bore  a  great  resemblance 
to  our  modern  games  ;  the  "  game  of  towns  "  may  be 
compared  to  our  draughts ;  two  opponents  played  at 
a  board  divided  into  squares  with  thirty  stones  apiece, 
which  differed  in  colour,  and  the  game  was,  by  enclosing 
a  hostile  stone,  either  to  capture  it  or  to  prevent  it  from 
moving.  The  terra-cotta  group  represented  here  in 
Fig.  102  probably  shows  a  game  of  this  kind.  A  youth 
and  a  woman  are  playing  together,  while  a  third  person, 
a  caricature,  is  looking  on ;  the  board  is  roughly 
divided  into  forty-two  squares,  and  there  are  twelve  flat 
stones,  but  we  cannot  from  this  draw  any  conclusion 
about  the  nature  of  the  game. 

In  this  game,  as  in  chess  or  draughts,  the  victory 
depended  entirely  on  the  skill  of  the  player,  but  an 
element  of  chance  was  added  when  the  defence  ot 
the  stones  on  their  lines  or  squares  depended  on  the 


224 


GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 


throwing  of  dice,  which  was  the  case  in  the  game  of 
"  five-lines  "  (irevr^pa^o^).  But  even  here  there  seem 
to  have  been  modifications,  which  would  enable  a  skilful 


FIQ.  102. 


player  to  compensate  himself  for  an  unfavourable  throw, 
by  the  choice  of  various  moves  open  to  him.  The 
games  played  with  knuckle-bones  and  dice  were  pure 
games  of  chance,  and  were  very  often  played  for  money. 
In  playing  dice  they  used  several,  generally  three,  dice, 
corresponding  exactly  to  those  of  the  present  day,  and 


MEALS   AND    SOCIAL   ENTERTAINMENTS.  225 

a  cup  from  which  they  threw  them,  and  a  board  or  a 
table  with  a  raised  edge  on  to  which  they  were  thrown. 
The  victory  depended  on  the  number  of  points  thrown. 
The  best  throw,  three  times  six,  was  called  the  "  Coan," 
the  worst,  three  times  one,  was  called  the  "  dog,"  but 
there  were  various  rules  of  the  game  dealing  with 
particular  combinations,  such  as  is  still  the  case  in 
dice-playing  at  the  present  day. 

There  were  several  ways  of  playing  with  astragals,' 
or  knuckle-bones,  which  were  really  the  ball  of  the 
ankle-joint  of  a  lamb,  or  else  were  artificially  imitated 
in  other  material.  One  way  of  playing,  chiefly  used  by 
children,  but  also  sometimes  by  grown-up  people,  was 
a  real  game  of  sit  ill  and  consisted  in  throwing  up  a 
number,  usually  five,  of  knuckle-bones,  pebbles,  beans, 
coins,  etc.,  and  catching  them  again  on  the  back 
of  the  hand,  meantime  picking  up  with  the  stretched- 
out  fingers  those  which  had  fallen  down.  Sometimes 
they  only  played  "  odd  or  even,"  and  one  of  the  players 
had  to  guess  straight  away  whether  the  other  had  an 
odd  or  even  number  of  these  astragals,  which  took  the 
place  of  our  counters,  in  his  closed  hand.  At  others 
they  played  with  astragals  in  the  same  way  as  with 
dice.  In  this  case  the  four  large  sides  of  the  bone,  on 
which  it  might  fall,  had  a  particular  numerical  value, 
which  was  not  written  upon  it,  but  depended  on  the 
shape  of  the  bone,  as  each  side  differed  from  the  others. 
The  convex  narrow  side  counted  as  one,  the  other, 
concave,  narrow  side  as  six,  the  broad  convex  side  as 
three,  and  the  broad  concave  side  as  four ;  two  and 
five  were  wanting  altogether,  for  the  other  little  surfaces 
of  the  bone  were  not  counted,  since  it  could  never  fall 
upon  them.  Four  pieces  were  generally  used  for  play- 
ing, and  they  were  treated  just  like  dice ;  the  best  throw 
was  that  in  which  each  of  the  astragals  lay  in  a  different 
J 


226  GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 

position,  and  thus  all  values  were  represented,  some- 
times they  counted  according  to  the  highest  number 


FIG.  103. 


thrown.  '  In  works  of  art  we  very  often  see  girls  play- 
ing astragal  One  of  the  prettiest  of  these  is  the  terra- 
cotta figure  from  Tanagra,  represented  in  Fig.  103. 

Another  game  of  chance  was  "  fast  and  loose,"  which 
yery  closely  resembled  the  game  still  played  at  fairs 


MEALS   AND  SOCIAL  ENTERTAINMENTS.  227 

by  sharpers.  A  strap  was  folded  double  and  wound 
round  several  times  on  a  table ;  the  player  then  pricked 
it  with  a  dagger  or  other  pointed  instrument,  and  if, 
when  the  strap  was  unwound,  it  appeared  that  the 
point  had  gone  between  the  layers  of  the  strap,  he 
won  ;  but  he  lost  if  the  strap  could  be  entirely  wound 


FIG.  104. 

off.  Another  favourite  game  was  similar  to  morra, 
still  popular  in  Italy.  Two  players  quickly  thrust  out 
their  right  hands  with  some  fingers  bent  in  and  others 
stretched  out,  and  they  have  at  one  glance  to  notice 
and  exclaim  how  many  fingers  of  both  hands  together 
are  stretched  out.  This  game  is  often  represented 
on  ancient  works  of  art ;  for  instance,  on  the  vase  paint- 
ing depicted  in  Fig.  104.  Here  a  youth  and  a  girl  are 
playing,  both  are  seated,  though  morra  players  of  the 
present  day  stand ;  in  their  left  hands  they  hold  a  stick, 


228  GREEK   LIFE  AT  HOME. 

the  object  of  which  is  to  prevent  them  in  the  excite- 
ment of  the  game  from  using  their  left  hands  by  mis- 
take. Similarly  the  Italians  put  their  left  hands 
behind  their  backs  while  playing.  The  youth  is  stretch- 
ing out  four  fingers,  the  girl  two,  so  that  the  number 
to  be  called  out  in  this  case  is  six.  A  Cupid  seated 
above  is  handing  a  wreath  to  the  girl,  and  thus  point- 
ing her  out  as  victorious. 

A  popular   amusement  in  Greece  was  cock  and 


FIG.   105. 

quail  fighting,  a  pursuit  which  played  so  important 
a  part  at  Athens  that  even  the  great  theatre  of 
Dionysus  had  to  be  used  for  the  purpose,  and  the 
Athenians  actually  maintained  that  this  was  a  spec- 
tacle calculated  to  rouse  the  courage  of  the  citizens  to 
brave  deeds.  Fighting  cocks  were  trained  at  Tanagra 
and  Rhodes ;  both  young  and  old  men  aimed  at  the 
possession  of  fighting  cocks  or  quails,  carried  them 
about  for  hours,  and  tried  by  all  possible  means  to 
excite  their  courage  in  order  to  obtain  prizes.  For 
this  purpose  they  were  fed  with  garlic,  and  sometimes 
brazen  spurs  were  even  tied  on  them  in  order  to  make 
the  wounds  they  inflicted  more  serious.  The  repre- 
sentations (compare  the  vase  painting,  Fig.  105)  show 


MEALS   AND   SOCIAL   ENTERTAINMENTS. 


229 


that  before  the  beginning  of  the  fight  each  owner  took 
his  bird  in  his  hand,  knelt  down,  and  thus  gradually 
approached  the  cocks  to  one  another  in  order  to 


FIG.  106. 

excite  them  from  a  distance ;  then  they  were  sent 
against  each  other,  and  the  owners  stood  up  again. 
Sometimes  the  hens  were  present  at  the  fight,  because 
the  cocks  were  more  inclined  to  fight  in  their  pres- 
ence. A  curious  custom  is  mentioned — namely,  that 
the  owner  of  the  defeated  bird  took  it  up  as  quickly 
as  possible  and  shouted  loud  into  its  ear ;  the  object 


230  GREEK   LIFE  AT  HOME. 

of  this  was  supposed  to  be  to  prevent  the  defeated 
cock  from  hearing  the  triumphant  crow  of  his 
conqueror,  and  thus  being  discouraged  for  future 
combats. 

To  return  to  the  symposium.  We  have  already 
mentioned  that,  in  spite  of  the  custom  of  mixing  the 
wine  with  water,  the  great  quantities  consumed,  since 
drinking  went  on  far  into  the  night,  did  often  conduce 
to  drunkenness.  The  scenes  which  were  sometimes 
enacted  by  the  light  of  the  quivering  oil  lamps  were 
not  always  very  attractive  or  indicative  of  the  grace 
and  moderation  which  we  are  apt  to  regard  as  the 
special  qualities  of  Greeks.  The  vase  painting  de- 
picted in  Fig.  106  shows  us  the  immediate  conse- 
quences of  excessive  drinking :  we  see  a  youth 
vomiting  his  wine,  wl  ile  a  pretty  girl  is  smiling  and 
holding  his  head. 

The  official  termination  of  the  symposium  was  a 
libation  to  Hermes,  but  even  then  they  did  not  always 
set  out  on  their  homeward  journey  in  company  with 
the  slaves  who  were  waiting  for  their  masters  with 
torches  or  lanterns,  but  sometimes  their  excitement 
led  them  to  wander  noisily  through  the  streets  with 
the  flute  girls  and  torch  bearers  in  a  Comus  (/c«o/zo<?),  and 
they  thus  entered  the  houses  of  friends  who  were  still 
sitting  at  their  wine,  or  carried  on  all  manner  of  jokes 
and  absurdities.  This  naturally  led  to  other  scenes, 
such  as  fighting,  etc.,  especially  if  one  of  the  partici- 
pants tried  to  obtain  entrance  to  an  hetaera,  when  a 
quarrel  often  ensued  between  the  rivals.  The  vase 
painting  depicted  in  Fig.  107  represents  a  scene  from 
the  comus,  the  chief  person  hi  which  is  the  drunken 
Hercules,  accompanied  by  satyrs,  but  in  reality  it  is 
only  a  scene  from  real"  life  transported  to  the  heroic 
domain.  The  hero,  who  is  lying  dead  drunk  on  the 


232  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

ground,  appears  to  have  demanded  admittance  at  a 
door  which  remained  closed  to  him,  and  some  old 
woman  has  poured  water  upon  him  from  a  window 
over  the  doorway.  Two  young  satyrs,  adorned  with 
fillets  and  wreaths,  of  whom  one  bears  a  thyrsus  and 
a  basket  of  fruit  and  cakes,  the  other  a  mixing-bowl 
and  fillets,  and  a  harp  girl  with  a  thyrsus  wand,  and  a 
flute  player  with  a  torch,  are  the  attendants  of  this 
night  wanderer.  These  scenes  furnish  an  unpleasant 
contrast  to  the  conclusion  of  the  Platonic  Symposium, 
when  Socrates,  who  has  been  drinking  hard  all  night, 
but  at  the  same  time  carrying  on  serious  conversation 
with  some  friends  as  staunch  as  himself,  gets  up  at 
daybreak,  while  the  rest  of  the  participants  have 
fallen  fast  asleep,  walks  with  steady  step  to  the  well 
in  the  Lyceum,  and  then,  as  usual,  proceeds  to  his 
day's  occupations. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

SICKNESS   AND   PHYSICIANS,    DEATH   AND   BURIAL. 

The  Great  Plague — Homer's  References  to  Physicians — Asklepiadae 
— The  Oath  of  Hippocrates — General  Practitioners  and  Specialists 
— Plutus  of  Aristophanes — Customs  connected  with  Death,  Burial, 
and  Burning — Tombs  and  their  Ornaments. 

GREEK  mythology  tells  us  that  in  the  golden  age 
mankind  lived  without  trouble  or  sorrows,  equally 
unacquainted  with  vice  and  with  cruel  disease ;  but 
when  fatal  curiosity  opened  the  disastrous  box  of 
Pandora,  along  with  a  thousand  other  troubles  which 
pursue  mankind,  there  came  forth  also  the  countless 
diseases  which  attack  men  by  day  and  night.  The 
myth  thus  expresses  in  simple  language  that,  with 
the  advance  of  civilisation  and  the  disappearance 
of  the  ancient  simple  mode  of  life  in  accordance 
with  nature,  the  number  of  diseases  also  increased. 
But  the  greater  the  number  of  these  attacks  on  the 
health  and  life  of  mankind,  the  more  eagerly  do  men 
seek  to  avoid  them,  though,  at  first,  in  a  purely 
empirical  manner,  and,  therefore,  the  beginnings  of 
the  healing  art  are  as  ancient  as  human  civilisation 
itself.  The  oldest  literary  monument  of  Greek  life, 
the  Homeric  Epic,  makes  little  mention  of  disease, 
with  the  exception  of  the  great  plague,  which  devas- 
tated the  camp  of  the  Greeks  before  Troy.  The 
reason  of  this,  however,  lies  in  the  nature  of  the  poet's 
subject,  and  we  must  not  on  that  account  infer  that, 
illness  was  little  known.  Even  in  Homer  mention  is 
made  of  physicians,  and  though  the  Homeric  doctors 


234  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

were  chiefly  concerned  with  healing  the  wounds  in- 
flicted in  war,  still  they  possessed  some  surgical  skill 
in  cutting  arrows  out  of  wounds,  putting  on  bandages, 
etc.,  and  were  also  acquainted  with  the  healing 
qualities  of  certain  herbs,  which  they  used  not  only 
for  external  treatment  of  injuries,  but  also  apparently 
for  internal  use,  in  reducing  fever,  etc.  Knowledge  of 
this  kind  always  appears  very  early,  even  among 
nations  of  slight  civilisation,  and  is  handed  down  from 
generation  to  generation.  But  the  healing  art  was 
not  confined  to  heroes  or  demigods,  such  as  Aesculapius 
and  Podalirius,  who  were  afterwards  regarded  as 
ancestors  of  the  physicians'  profession,  and  who  traced 
their  origin  and  their  knowledge  alike  to  the  gods. 
There  were  also,  even  at  that  time,  professional 
physicians,  and  certainly  it  cannot  have  been  left  to 
chance  to  determine  that  some  persons  possessing 
surgical  and  medical  knowledge  should  be  with  every 
army. 

It  is  no  longer  possible  to  trace  in  detail  the  de- 
velopment of  the  medical  profession  after  the  times  of 
Homer.  In  the  historical  period  we  find  the  healing 
art  developed  in  two  special  directions ;  first,  as 
practised  by  an  actual  medical  profession;  secondly, 
as  a  kind  of  religious  mystery  in  the  hands  of  priests  ; 
besides  these,  quackery  was  known  hi  antiquity,  as  in 
all  times. 

The  professional  physicians,  who,  even  in  later 
times,  regarded  their  art  as  divine,  and  handed  down 
by  their  ancestor  Aesculapius  (on  which  account  they 
also  called  themselves  Asklepiadae),  were  probably 
a  development  from  the  priestly  physicians.  It  is 
very  likely  that  in  the  first  centuries  after  Homer, 
the  practice  of  the  medical  art  was  still  directly  con- 
nected with  the  worship  of  Aesculapius,  and  that  the 


SICKNESS   AND  PHYSICIANS,   DEATH   AND   BURIAL.    235 

separation  which  we  find  in  the  historic  period,  where 
some  remained  as  medical  assistants  to  the  priests  in 
the  sanctuaries,  and  others  practised  independently 
on  their  own  account,  only  gradually  made  way.  It 
cannot  be  a  mere  chance  that  the  places  where  the 
most  celebrated  medical  schools  of  antiquity  existed, 
Cos  and  Cnidus,  were  also  regarded  as  the  chief  seats 
of  the  worship  of  Aesculapius.  The  professional 
physicians,  who  practised  their  art  independently,  and 
were  not  connected  with  the  sanctuaries,  naturally 
received  a  fee,  and  though  this  brought  them  into 
somewhat  bad  repute,  with  which  every  art  that  con- 
duced to  making  money  was  regarded,  yet  their 
occupation  stood  in  much  higher, general  estimation 
than  any  of  the  trades,  and  it  was  a  serious  reproach 
if  they,  as  sometimes  happened,  insisted  on  receiving 
their  payment  beforehand,  and  in  case  of  inability  to 
pay,  refused  to  give  any  treatment  at  all  Their 
knowledge  was  not  acquired  at  colleges  or  hospitals, 
like  that  of  our  modern  physicians,  but,  as  a  rule,  they 
became  assistants  or  apprentices  to  old  experienced 
physicians,  whom  they  accompanied  on  their  visits, 
and  by  whom  they  were  instructed  in  diagnosis  and 
therapeutics,  as  well  as  in  the  preparation  of  medicines- 
There  were  sellers  of  drugs,  who  kept  the  most  im- 
portant remedies,  but  there  were  no  apothecaries  in  our 
modern  sense,  and  physicians  always  prepared  their 
own  medicines.  There  does  not  appear  to  have  been  any 
examination  necessary  in  early  times  before  practising 
the  medical  profession,  or  any  direct  control  or  super- 
vision of  the  doctors,  but  in  later  times  physicians 
seem  to  have  held  together  in  a  sort  of  guild,  and, 
perhaps,  even  solemnly  dismissed  their  apprentices  at 
the  end  of  their  period  of  instruction  before  their 
assembled  colleagues.  This  is  suggested  by  the  oath 


236  GREEK   LIFE  AT   HOME. 

of  Hippocrates,  which  has  been  preserved  to  us,  in 
which  the  young  disciple  of  Aesculapius  promises  to 
keep  only  the  welfare  of  his  patient  before  huiVj  to 
keep  silence,  to  give  no  one  poison,  even  at  his  own 
request,  etc.  Probably  this  oath  was  only  used  in  the 
school  of  Hippocrates  and  his  followers. 

Among  the  professional  physicians  there  was  a 
further  distinction  between  those  who  practised  privately 
and  those  who  had  official  positions.  The  former  either 
gave  their  advice  at  home  or  else  visited  their  patients. 
Slight  invalids,  who  were  able  to  go  out,  generally 
visited  the  physician  in  his  consulting  hours,  and  there 
they  received  not  only  advice  but  sometimes  also  direct 
treatment,  since  othjsr  apartments  for  bathing,  operating, 
etc.,  were  connected  with  the  consulting  room,  and  the 
physician  also  prepared  and  dispensed  his  medicines 
here.  Even  those  who  were  very  ill,  as,  for  instance, 
the  wounded  Lamachus  in  the  "  Acharnians  "  of  Aris- 
tophanes, were  carried  straight  to  the  doctor  when 
the  case  was  pressing.  Of  course  a  very  celebrated 
physician  could  not  himself  treat  all  his  patients,  and  he 
therefore  employed  assistants  in  his  'consulting  room, 
who  also  accompanied  him  when  he  paid  visits  abroad, 
in  order  to  profit  by  the  master's  experience  at  the 
sick  bed ;  and  it  may  not  have  been  very  pleasant  for  the 
patients  when  the  doctor  thus  arrived  in  company  of 
a  not  inconsiderable  troop  of  students.  It  was  still 
more  unpleasant,  however,  if  want  of  means  compelled 
them  to  resort  to  inferior  assistants,  who  sometimes 
were  even  slaves.  These  slave  doctors  were  not  only 
summoned  to  the  slave  population,  but  they  also 
treated  free  people,  chiefly  those  who  were  too  poor  to 
pay  a  high  fee.  Of  these  it  was  said  that  they  differed 
from  the  better  physicians,  who  were  careful  and  who 
studied  and  watched  then*  patients,  in  paying  very 


SICKNESS   AND  PHYSICIANS,  DEATH   AND  BURIAL.    237 

hasty  visits,  scarcely  taking  time  to  inquire  after  the 
nature  of  the  illness,  and  hurrying  on  after  giving  any 
directions  that  might  occur  to  them.  Sometimes  a 
citizen  had  one  of  his  slaves  taught  the  healing  art  by 
some  physician,  supposing  he  showed  any  ability  for 
this  profession,  and  by  this  means  he  had  someone  in 
the  house  who,  in  case  of  need,  could  supply  help  at 
once.  The  position  of  the  Greek  slaves,  especially  in 
Attica,  was  a  comparatively  free  one,  and  therefore 
we  must  not  be  surprised  that  they  were  willing  to 
entrust  the  welfare  of  their  body  to  a  slave,  seeing  that 
they  even  left  much  of  the  moral  training  of  their 
children  to  him.  Complaints  were  often  made,  too, 
about  free  physicians,  not  on  account  of  their  hastiness 
and  carelessness,  but  rather  because  of  their  boastful 
and  haughty  bearing ;  thus,  for  instance,  Menecrates, 
a  physician  of  Syracuse,  was  accused  of  always  dress- 
ing in  the  most  elaborate  fashion,  and  wishing  to  be 
called  Zeus.  Others  were  rude  or  inconsiderate  to 
their  patients,  like  that  doctor  who  answered  a  patient, 
when  he  expressed  fear  of  death,  with  the  words  of 
Homer : — "  Patroclus,  too,  is  dead,  and  he  was  a  better 
man  than  thou."  Others  gave  annoyance  by  careless- 
ness in  their  dress  and  noisy  manner,  loud  talk,  etc. 
Hippocrates  insisted  that  a  physician  should  aim  at  a 
certain  amount  of  elegance  in  dress  and  care  in  regard 
to  his  person,  though  he  adds  characteristicaUy  that 
any  doctor  is  at  liberty  to  do  otherwise  supposing  his 
patients  prefer  it. 

The  position  of  the  public  physicians,  who  were 
chosen  and  paid  by  a  community,  end  therefore  bound 
to  receive  no  fees  for  their  treatment,  was  a  different 
one,  though  it  is  not  clear  whether  they  treated  all  the 
citizens  or  only  the  poor  ones.  These  public  physicians 
sometimes  received  very  high  salaries  Thus  the 


238  «REEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 

physician  Democedes,  as  public  doctor  at  Aegina,  re- 
ceived a  salary  of  one  talent  (about  £326) ;  thereupon 
he  was  summoned  to  Athens  with  a  salary  of  a  hundred 
rainae  (£393),  and  in  the  following  year  the  tyrant 
Polycrates,  of  Samos,  invited  him,  probably  to  fill  the 
post  of  public  physician,  not  as  his  own  private  doctor, 
and  gave  him  a  salary  of  two  talents  (probably  Attic 
talents,  therefore  £471).  On  the  other  hand  we 
sometimes  hear  of  rich  physicians  treating  the  poor 
free  of  charge. 

Specialists  do  not  seem  to  have  been  common  in 
ancient  Greece,  the  same  doctors  treated  external  and 
internal  complaints,  and  also  men  and  women.  It 
seems,  however,  from  the  oath  of  Hippocrates  that 
there  were  specialists  who  undertook  the  operation  of 
cutting  for  stone.  Oculists  were  unknown  till  a  later 
period,  when  the  medical  practice  generally  developed 
in  various  ways,  and  in  particular  the  influence  of 
gymnastics,  and  the  dietetics  connected  therewith  had 
a  very  important  influence  on  medical  methods. 

These  physicians,  although  they  at  times  made  use 
of  strange  or  "  sympathetic  "  means  of  treatment,  yet 
in  general  aimed  at  scientific  methods,  building  on  the 
knowledge  handed  down  to  them  by  their  predecessors, 
and  enriching  it  by  their  own  experience  and  studies. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  healing  processes,  to  which  the 
priests  of  the  Aesculapian  sanctuaries  resorted,  seem 
to  have  occupied  a  very  doubtful  position  between 
empirical  therapeutics  and  superstitious  hocus-pocus. 
It  had  been  a  custom  from  ancient  times  for  the  priests 
of  Aesculapius  to  practise  the  healing  art.  Their 
knowledge  was  supposed  to  be  in  part  very  ancient, 
handed  down  by  the  god  himself,  and  in  part  divino 
revelation,  which  was  continually  renewed.  Some  of 
the  sanctuaries  of  Aesculapius  were  renowned  and 


SICKNESS  AND   PHYSICIANS,   DEATH   AND   BURIAL.    239 

visited  beyond  all  others  on  account  of  their  wonder- 
ful and  successful  cures,  in  particular  Cos,  Cnidus, 
Tricca,  but  especially  Epidaurus,  and  afterwards  also 
Pergamum.  To  these  sanctuaries  the  invalids  who 
sought  healing  went  as  pilgrims,  just  as  people  still  go 
in  Catholic  countries  to  wonder-working  shrines,  and 
as  hi  these  we  see  countless  memorials  of  successfa 
cures,  pictures  and  descriptions  of  diseases,  wax  or 
silver  imitations  of  the  part  or  limb  that  was 
healed,  etc.,  so  in  ancient  times  thank-offerings  were 
made  to  Aesculapius,  sometimes  hi  the  shape  of  coin, 
sometimes  also  imitations  of  hands,  legs,  eyes,  ears,  and 
breasts,  etc.,  in  marble,  silver,  or  gold,  or  else  in  simple 
wax  or  clay,  together  with  the  name  of  the  person  who 
found  healing  there.  Some  also  dedicated  tablets,  on 
which  was  inscribed  a  detailed  account  of  their  illness 
and  cure,  and  the  priests  set  up  large  tablets  in  the 
domain  of  the  temple,  on  which  all  manner  of  wonder- 
ful cures  were  described.  The  geographer  Strabo  tells 
us  of  such  inscriptions,  describing  diseases,  in  the 
sanctuaries  of  Epidaurus,  Cos,  and  Tricca.  Pausanias 
saw  hi  the  temple  domain  at  Epidaurus  six  large 
tablets  of  this  kind.  Very  considerable  fragments  of 
two  of  these  were  found  a  few  years  ago,  which  give 
us  a  very  interesting  insight  into  the  proceedings  at 
the  Aesculapian  sanctuaries. 

The  healing  methods  of  the  priests  of  Aesculapius 
were  especially  distinguished  from  those  of  the  pro- 
fessional physicians  by  the  veil  of  secrecy  and  miracle 
which  surrounded  them,  since  they  rightly  understood 
that  the  love  of  wonders  among  the  common  people 
would  always  bring  them  success.  The  healing  was 
effected  by  what  was  called  "  incubation  " ;  the  patient 
had  to  lie  down  at  night  in  the  sanctuary  and  sleep  ; 
in  a  dream  the  god  appeared  to  him,  and  either 


240  GREEK   LIFE  AT  HOME. 

suggested  to  him  the  remedy  which  would  cure  him, 
or  else  undertook,  on  the  spot,  to  heal  the  sleeper,  so 
that  the  patient,  when  he  awoke,  found  himself  restored 
to  health,  and  went  joyfully  away  !  Aristophanes,  in 
his ."  Plutus,"  drastically  depicts  one  of  these  cures  in 
the  temple.  The  blind  god  of  riches  coines  to  the 
temple  of  Aesculapius  to  seek  for  healing;  after 
taking  a  bath  in  the  sea,  he  is  conducted  to  the  sanc- 
tuary ;  he  offers  a  sacrifice  and  then  lies  down  to  sleep, 
.together  with  other  patients,  and  one  of  the  temple 
servants  warns  them  to  keep  unbroken  silence.  The 
servant  who  accompanies  Plutus,  and  who  relates  the 
proceedings,  seems  to  be  a  somewhat  free-thinking 
rogue.  He  cannot  sleep,  and  as  he  observes  that 
after  the  invalids  have  gone  to  sleep,  the  priests  take 
away  and  pocket  the  offerings  laid  upon  the  altars, 
he  also  takes  the  opportunity  to  filch  a  pot  of 
porridge  from  an  old  woman  near  him.  After  a  time 
the  god  himself  appears,  accompanied  by  two  goddesses 
of  healing.  He  goes  round,  examines  the  individual 
patients,  and,  at  last,  comes  also  to  Plutus ;  he  feels 
his  head,  dries  his  eyelids  with  a  linen  cloth,  and  one 
of  the  goddesses  puts  a  purple  veil  over  his  face. 
Suddenly  two  great  snakes  come  from  the  interior  of 
the  temple,  creep  under  the  veil,  and  lick  the  eyelids  of 
Plutus,  who  thus  recovers  the  powei  of  sight.  Here 
the  cure  takes  place  during  sleep,  as  also  hi  the  stories 
which  are  related  on  the  inscriptions  of  Epidaurus, 
mentioned  above.  There,  too,  an  account  is  given  of 
the  cure  of  a  blind  woman  to  whom  Aesculapius 
appears  in  a  dream,  and  restores  her  sight  by  drop- 
ping some  healing  lotion  into  her  eyes,  in  return  for 
the  promise  that  she  will  dedicate  a  silver  pig  to 
Aesculapius  (to  whom  pigs  were  often  sacrificed),  as  a 
penalty  for  having  come  to  the  temple  in  o,  state  of 


SICKNESS   AND   PHYSICIANS,   DEATH   AND   BURIAL.    241 

unbelief.  Such  cures  of  blindness  are  often  mentioned 
in  the  inscriptions ;  sometimes  the  dog,  which  was 
also  sacred  to  Aesculapius,  takes  the  place  of  the 
god,  as  the  snakes  did  in  Aristophanes,  and  cures 
the  eyes  by  licking  them;  in  another  case  the 
snake  of  Aesculapius  cures  the  wounded  toes  of  a 
patient  by  licking.  Many  cases  are  even  more 
wonderful.  A  man,  who  has  completely  lost  one  of 
his  eyes,  receives  the  lost  eye  again  by  means  of 
healing  lotion  poured  into  his  sockets  by  the  god 
during  sleep.  A  woman,  who  has  a  worm  in  her 
body,  dreams  that  Aesculapius  cuts  it  open  for  her, 
takes  the  worm  out,  and  sews  it  up  again.  A  man 
has  moles  on  his  forehead,  which  the  god  removes  by 
laying  a  bandage  over  his  brow,  whereupon  next 
moment  it  appears  perfectly  white  and  pure,  while 
the  moles  are  left  on  the  bandage ;  another  man  has 
lost  the  use  of  the  fingers  of  one  hand,  the  god  jumps 
on  his  hand  and  pulls  his  fingers  straight  again, 
whereupon  he  is  once  more  able  to  use  them,  etc.,  etc. 
Indeed,  Aesculapius  not  only  cures  sick  people,  but 
also  lifeless  objects.  A  slave  has  broken  his  master's 
cup,  and  as  he  sits  sadly  looking  at  it,  a  passer-by 
laughingly  says  that  even  Aesculapius  could  not  mend 
that.  That  suggests  to  him  taking  the  fragments 
into  the  temple,  and  next  morning,  when  he  opens  the 
case  in  which  he  has  put  them,  behold,  the  cup  is 
whole  again ! 

It  is  difficult  to  say  which  part  of  these  stories 
is  mere  charlatanism  and  what  refers  to  real  medical 
treatment  by  means  of  operation.  It  is  but  natural 
that  the  priests  at  first  got  information  by  questioning 
each  patient  about  his  illness.  The  sleep  hi  the 
sanctuary,  which  was  indispensable  for  healing,  was 
probably  not  a  natural  one,  but  either  a  mesmeric 


242  GREEK  LIFE  AT  HOME. 

sleep — since  undoubtedly  the  ancients' were  acquainted 
with  this — or  else  a  half-sleep  induced  by  some  narcotic, 
during  which  the  priests  in  the  service  of  Aesculapius 
or  their  assistants  appeared  and  performed  slight 
surgical  operations  on  the  sick  people.  This  hypothesis 
is  the  more  probable,  since  all  the  cures  mentioned  in 
these  inscriptions  from  Epidaurus  (which,  though 
dating  from  the  time  of  Alexander  the  Great,  are  copies 
of  older  inscriptions,  probably  of  the  fifth  century)  deal 
only  with  external  means  and  never  with  internal 
treatment ;  no  medicine  or  healing  drink  is  mentioned. 
The  cures  which  took  place  later  on  in  the 
sanctuaries  of  Aesculapius  by  means  of  incubation,  or 
temple  sleep,  which  were  customary  even  hi  the  Roman 
period,  were  of  a  different  nature.  The  invalids  were 
not  actually  cured  during  their  sleep,  but  they  received 
in  a  dream  an  indication  from  the  god  of  the  manner 
in  which  they  could  be  freed  from  then*  sufferings, 
directions  sometimes  in  reference  to  dietetic  measures, 
such  as  baths,  fasting,  etc.,  and  sometimes  to  medicines. 
In  these  cases,  too,  we  must  suppose  that  the  invalid 
fell  into  a  state  of  half-sleep,  during  which  a  priest  in 
the  form  of  the  god  appeared,  and  gave  the  directions 
in  question,  for  which  a  quantity  of  medical  knowledge, 
gradually  acquired  by  experience,  stood  the  priests  in 
good  stead  Sometimes  healing  thermae,  or  springs, 
which  were  found  near  some  of  the  sanctuaries,  did 
good  service,  especially  if  the  invalids  remained  there 
for  some  time.  The  Greek  sanctuaries  of  Aesculapius 
were  almost  always  situated  on  high  ground,  where  the 
ah*  was  healthy  and  pure.  There  must  always  have 
been  houses  for  the  reception  of  sick  people,  especially 
those  who  came  from  a  great  distance.  Thus  the 
sanctuary  of  Aesculapius  at  Epidaurus  was  about  four 
miles  from  the  town,  but,  to  prevent  any  pollution  of 


SICKNESS   AND  PHYSICIANS,  DEATH  AND  BURIAL.    243 

the  holy  place,  no  children  must  be  born  there  and  no 
one  must  die  there,  and  on  this  account  pregnant 
women  and  dying  people  were  mercilessly  sent  away. 
Of  course  the  priests  did  not  give  their  aid  for  nothing, 
but  were  repaid  in  money  or  offerings  to  the  shrine, 
and  we  find  many  allusions  to  these  offerings  ;  indeed, 
the  sanctuary  at  Epidaurus  could  vie  in  wealth  with 
that  at  Delphi. 

It  was  not  only  in  the  temples  of  Aesculapius  that 
dream  oracles  existed.  Many  other  gods  or  heroes 
took  similar  care  for  suffering  humanity,  just  as  at  the 
present  day  the  shrines  which  possess  miraculous 
pictures  of  Madonnas  or  relics  vie  with  one  another. 
Thus  sick  people  were  received  in  the  temple  of  Hades, 
situated  between  Tralles  and  Nysa,  in  Lydia,  but  here 
it  was  the  priests  and  not  the  patients  to  whom  the 
method  of  cure  was  revealed  in  sleep,  and  this  was 
also  the  caso  in  the  temple  of  Amphiaraus  at  Oropus, 
on  the  borders  of  Attica  and  Boeotia. 

Mention  must  also  be  made  of  quackery  and 
sympathetic  cures.  The  belief  in  the  latter  was  very 
general  in  antiquity,  and  was  shared  even  by  unpre- 
judiced men  of  considerable  education.  This  was 
effected  by  amulets,  supposed  to  ward  off  or  heal 
diseases,  and  also  by  magic  words  wtjich  we  should  now 
describe  as  conjuring ;  laying  on  ot  aands,  symbolical 
washing,  etc.  The  sellers  of  drugs  were  specially 
occupied  with  quackery ;  besides  rouge,  paint,  and  other 
means  of  promoting  beauty,  they  also  sold  medicines 
and  offered  their  wares  in  mountebank  fashion.  Very 
often,  when  sick  people  had  failed  to  obtain  alleviation 
or  cure  from  a  regular  physician,  they  gave  him  up 
and  resorted  to  quackery  instead. 

There  were  a  number  of  half  symbolical,  half  super- 
stitious, customs  connected  with  death  and  burial, 


244  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

which  were  partly  due  to  the  belief  that  the  soul  would 
be  more  easily  received  and  allowed  to  remain  in  the 
dark  realm  of  shadows  in  consequence  of  this  care  of 
the  body ;  but  the  ancients  also  regarded  fitting  burial 
and  care  for  the  grave  as  the  fulfilment  of  a  duty 
imposed  by  the  gods,  and  likely  also  to  bring  blessing 
to  the  surviving  members  of  the  race.  This  duty  was, 
therefore,  only  neglected  in  the  very  rarest  cases. 
Criminals  were  buried  without  any  ceremony,  or  were 
left  to  rot  unburied ;  suicides,  too,  were  refused  the 
common  honours  of  public  burial,  and  were  put  away 
by  night,  a  time  which  was  not  customary  for  funerals. 
In  order  to  gain  some  insight  into  these  customs, 
let  us  turn  once  more  to  that  house  which  we  visited 
in  order  to  be  present  at  the  birth  and  early  life  of  an 
Athenian  of  the  well-to-do  class.  Let  us  suppose  that 
after  spending  a  long  and  honourable  life  in  the 
service  of  his  country,  he  has  lain  down  to  take  his 
last  rest.  Surrounded  by  the  nearest  members  of  his 
family,  he  has  breathed  his  last  breath,  after  having 
himself,  with  his  dying  hand,  drawn  one  of  the  points 
of  his  garment  over  his  face,  in  order  to  spare  his 
friends  the  painful  sight  of  the  death  struggle. 
One  of  the  survivors  now  steps  up  to  the  bed, 
uncovers  the  face  of  the  dead  man,  and  softly  closes 
his  eyes  and  mouth.  According  to  the  curious 
ancient  belief,  not  peculiar  to  the  Greeks,  that  a 
human  being  is  unclean  immediately  after  entrance 
into  life,  and  also  on  his  departure  from  the  world, 
and  as  this  uncleanness  is  extended  to  the  whole 
house  and  all  who  associate  with  it,  immediately 
after  the  death  a  vessel  of  consecrated  water,  which 
must  be  brought  from  another  house,  is  placed  before 
the  door,  and  everyone  who  leaves  the  dwelling 
sprinkles  himself  from  it,  in  order  to  be  once  more 


SICKNESS   AND   PHYSICIANS,    DEATH    AND   BURIAL.     245 

pure  and  able  to  associate  with  others.  The  corpse  is 
then  washed  by  the  women  of  the  family,  anointed 
with  fine  oil  and  sweet-scented  essences,  and  clothed 
in  pure  white  garments.  These  are  the  dress  of 
common  life — the  chiton  and  the  himation,  but  so 
put  on  that  both  arms  are  covered  and  only  the 
head  and  feet  seen.  Youths  were  probably  clad  in 
the  chlamys,  and  the  Spartans  preferred  to  clothe 
their  dead  in  the  scarlet  military  cloak,  while  at 
Athens  coloured  garments  were  sometimes  used  in- 
stead of  white.  On  the  dead  man's  head  they  put  a 
wreath  of  real  flowers — whatever  the  season  might 
supply — or  else  laurel,  olive,  or  ivy.  At  burial, 
this  was  often  replaced  by  an  artificial  wreath  of 
beaten  gold  leaf,  and  numerous  remains  of  these 
death- wreaths,  which  were  often  of  very  artistic  work- 
manship, have  been  found  in  Greek  graves.  Relations 
and  friends  also  sent  fresh  wreaths  and  garlands  as  a 
token  of  sympathy,  and  these  were  used  for  decking 
the  bier  and  grave.  In  the  dead  man's  mouth  they 
put  a  coin,  as  passage  money  for  the  ferryman  who 
had  to  ferry  the  souls  over  the  Styx ;  for  after  the 
belief  in  Charon,  which  was  unknown  in  the  Homeric 
period,  had  taken  firm  root  among  the  Greeks,  it  was 
regarded  as  a  pious  duty  to  supply  the  dead  man,  as 
soon  as  possible,  "with  this  passage  money,  in  order 
that  the  shade  might  not  wander  too  long  restlessly 
by  the  shore  of  Styx.  The  coin  was  put  in  his  mouth, 
because  in  common  life  it  was  not  unusual  to  put 
single  coins  in  the  hollow  of  the  cheek,  since  pockets 
were  unknown  in  ancient  costume ;  large  sums  were 
seldom  carried  about,  or  else  they  were  put  in  a  bag. 
It  was  a  similar  superstition  which  made  people  in 
some  places  put  a  honey-cake  by  the  side  of  the 
corpse  to  pacify  the  dog  Cerberus,  the  fierce  guardian 


246  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

of  the  lower  regions.  Previous  to  the  funeral  there 
was  a  solemn  laying-out  of  the  body,  when  friends 
and  acquaintances  came  to  see  the  departed  for  the 
last  time,  and  the  near  relations  took  part  in  the 
funeral  lament  for  the  dead.  This  laying- out,  or 
TrpoOecris,  usually  took  place  in  the  central  hall  of 
the  house,  but  care  was  taken  that  the  sun  should  not 
shine  on  the  corpse,  since  even  the  Sun  god  must 
not  pollute  himself  by  the  sight  of  a  dead  body.  On 
a  couch  covered  with  cushions  and  hangings,  adorned 
with  flowers  and  branches,  the  dead  man  was  laid,  his 
feet  turned  towards  the  house  door,  through  which  he 
must  take  his  last  journey ;  round  about  him,  at  any 
rate  at  Athens,  they  placed  large  or  small  oil  flasks 
(\r)icv6oi),  adorned  with  paintings,  all  depicting  scenes 
dealing  with  death  or  graves,  which  were  made  in  one 
of  the  Attic  vase  factories  specially  for  this  purpose, 
and  were  probably  sent  by  sympathetic  friends  as 
funeral  offerings.  Besides  the  nearest  relations,  in- 
timate friends  also  took  part  in  the  solemn  funeral 
lament,  and  were  sometimes  specially  invited  for  the 
purpose.  The  servants  of  the  house  also  stood  by  the 
couch  with  the  other  mourners,  and  joined  with  them 
in  the  lament,  in  which  men  and  women,  standing 
apart,  joined  alternately.  This  lament  was  no  wild, 
irregular  wail,  but  a  regular  hymn  of  sorrow,  and  very 
often  singers  were  specially  hired  in  order  to  add  to 
the  beauty  of  the  performance,  and  the  hymn  was 
sometimes  broken  from  time  to  time  by  choruses  sung 
either  by  the  whole  assembly  or  by  semi-choruses. 
Many  external  marks  of  sorrow  were  also  shown,  such 
as  are  customary  in  the  south,  where  the  character  of 
the  people  is  more  violent  and  excitable,  viz.,  beating 
the  breast,  lacerating  the  cheeks,  tearing  out  the  hair, 
rending  the  garments ;  and  sometimes  cries  of  grief 


248 


GREEK   LIFE  AT   HOME. 


interrupted  the 
song  of  mourning 
Solon  had  ordered 
moderation  in  these 
marks  of  sorrow, 
but  it  must  have 
been  difficult,  if  not 
impossible,  to  keep 
within  bounds  by 
any  legal  decrees 
the  expression  of 
wild  despair, 
especially  on  the 
part  of  the  women. 
The  custom  of 
these  funeral 
laments  is  a  very 
ancient  one.  We 
find  it  universally 
adopted  in  the 
Homeric  period, 
and  here,  too,  in 
the  form  of  respon- 
sions ;  the  wail  is 
heard  at  Troy  by 
the  corpse  of  Hec- 
tor, as  well  as  in  the 
Greek  camp  by  the 
bier  of  Achilles. 
We  find  the  laying- 
out  of  the  corpse 
and  the  funeral 
lament  represented 
on  a  great  many 
vase  pain  tings,  as, 


SICKNESS   AND   PHYSICIANS,   DEATH    AND   BURIAL.     249 

for  instance,  in  the  one  depicted  in  Fig.  108.  Here 
we  see  the  dead  man  lying  on  a  richly-decked 
couch,  in  front  of  which  stands  a  footstool;  he  is 
enveloped  in  his  mantle  up  to  his  neck,  he  wears  a 
wreath,  and  his  head  rests  on  several  cushions.  In 
front  of  the  couch  and  at  the  sides  stand  six  women, 
all  raising  their  arms  with  gestures  of  grief;  some  of 
them  are  touching  their  heads,  as  though  to  tear 
out  their  hair.  A  little  girl  in  a  similar  attitude 
stands  at  the  foot  of  the  bed ;  01*  the  right,  turning 
away  from  the  scene,  stands  a  boy.  Fig.  109  is 
similar.  Here  we  see  under  the  dead  man's  couch 
his  shield,  helmet,  and  cuirass ;  of  the  wailing  women, 
who  are  almost  all  tearing  out  their  hair,  one  holds  a 
lyre  in  her  hand,  and  another  a  fillet ;  the  former  is 
accompanying  the  lament,  the  other  is  about  to 
deck  the  corpse  or  the  bier.  The  hot  climate  of  the 
south  generally  necessitated  limiting  the  duration  of 
this  ceremony  to  a  single  day,  and,  indeed,  Solon 
expressly  commanded  that  this  should  be  done;  only 
where  special  measures  were  taken  for  preserving 
the  body  was  it  possible  to  leave  it  for  several 
days.  Embalming  was  not  customary  in  Greece ; 
it  was  only  when  the  corpses  of  those  who  had  died 
in  foreign  lands  were  brought  home  to  be  buried, 
that  they  were  placed  in  some  substance  to  check 
the  dissolution — for  instance,  in  honey,  as  the  Spar- 
tans did  with  those  of  their  kings  who  died  away 
fr>m  home. 

The  funeral  usually  took  place  in  the  early  morn- 
ing before  sunrise,  and  throughout  the  whole  of 
antiquity  both  burying  and  burning  were  common, 
sometimes  subsisting  side  by  side,  while  at  other 
times  one  fashion  or  the  other  was  more  general.  It 
seems  as  though  burying  had  at  first  been  more 


250  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

common  among  the  Greeks  than  burning.  It  is  true 
we  find  only  burning  mentioned  in  the  Homeric 
poems,  but  we  must  not  forget  that  we  are  concerned 
with  exceptional  circumstances  in  the  Iliad,  since 
the  warriors  who  fell  before  Troy  did  not  die  at  home ; 
and  in  such  cases,  even  in  later  times,  burning  was 
preferred,  since  it  enabled  the  survivors  to  bring 
the  ashes  of  the  dead  man  home  with  them.  Still, 
even  in  those  early  times,  burying  was  very  common, 
as  is  proved,  in  spite  of  the  lack  of  literary  evidence, 
by  the  ancient  burial  grounds  discovered  at  many 
places  in  Greece  ;  and  similarly,  in  the  historic  period, 
the  burning  of  dead  bodies,  though  certainly  prac- 
tised, was  not  so  common  as  burying,  if  only  for  the 
very  practical  reason  that  the  latter  was  far  cheaper 
and  much  less  troublesome.  Whichever  form  was 
chosen  by  the  friends,  or  had  been  appointed  by 
the  dead  man  himself,  the  solemn  funeral  proces- 
sion was  never  omitted;  the  crematoria,  like  the 
cemeteries,  were  outside  the  city  gates,  since  at 
Athens,  and  probably  in  most  Greek  states,  they  were 
not  allowed  to  bury  their  dead  within  the  walls ;  the 
Doric  states  alone  seem  to  have  made  an  exception 
to  this  rule.  A  very  ancient  painted  vase  seems  to 
afford  a  proof  that  it  was  customary  in  early  times  to 
convey  the  dead  to  the  cemetery  on  a  car  drawn  by 
horses,  but  in  the  historical  age,  at  any  rate,  the 
corpse  was  taken  to  the  grave  on  the  same  couch 
on  which  it  had  been  exposed  to  view.  This  duty 
was  generally  performed  by  the  slaves  of  the  house- 
hold, and  where  there  were  not  sufficient  of  these, 
gravediggers  were  specially  hired ;  while  in  the  case 
of  men  who  had  deserved  well  of  their  country,  the 
citizens  regarded  it  as  an  honour  to  perform  this 
duty  themselves.  If  the  dead  man  had  died  a  violent 


SICKNESS  AND  PHYSICIANS,  DEATH  AND  BURIAL.   251 

death,  a  spear  was  carried  in  front  of  him,  which 
pointed  to  the  revenge  to  be  taken ;  the  spear  was  then 
fixed  in  the  earth  near  the  grave,  and  the  nearest  rela- 
tion pronounced  a  curse  against  the  murderer,  after 
which  the  place  was  watched  for  three  days.  This  did 
not,  however,  point  to  revenge  on  the  part  of  the  relations 
alone,  but  to  the  punishment  to  be  inflicted  by  the  legal 
authorities.  As  a  rule,  the  male  relations  and  friends 
walked  at  the  head  of  the  processions,  and  the  women 
behind  the  corpse ;  but  one  of  Solon's  ordinances 
limited  the  female  followers  to  the  nearest  relations 
not  extending  beyond  the  nieces.  Among  the  more 
distant  relations,  only  women  over  sixty  years  of  age 
were  allowed  to  follow.  This  law  does  not,  however, 
seem  to  have  been  quite  strictly  observed.  All  the 
mourners  wore  grey  or  black  mourning ;  the  nearest 
relations  cut  their  hair  off,  for  liie  custom  of  shaving 
the  hair  in  case  of  death  is  a  very  old  one,  and  even 
in  Homer  we  read  that  the  hair  cut  off  was  sometimes 
placed  in  the  dead  man's  hand.  During  the  proces- 
sion laments  were  again  sung,  and  accompanied  by 
the  wailing  tones  of  a  flute  ;  but  here  customs  differed 
somewhat,  and  at  Ceos,  for  instance,  where  the  ordi- 
nances concerning  burial,  differing  in  many  respects 
from  the  Attic  customs,  have  been  preserved  to  us, 
there  were  especial  directions  that  the  body  should 
be  carried  out  in  silence.  The  dead  man  wore 
the  clothes  hi  which  he  had  been  laid  out,  but 
extravagance  and  excessive  luxury  necessitated 
some  limitations  by  the  law,  so  that  Solon  expressly 
ordained  that  the  number  of  garments  should  not 
exceed  three,  and  the  above-mentioned  ordinance 
allowed  only  one  under  garment,  one  cloak,  and 
one  pall  or  covering,  the  whole  value  not  to  exceed 
300  drachmae,  and  also  ordained  that  the  couch  on 


232 


GUELK    LIFE   AT   HOME. 


which  the  dead  man  was  carried  to  the  grave,  and  the 
other  hangings  or  cushions,  should  not  be  burnt  or 
buried,  but  brought  back  again. 

There  were  various  ways  of  burying  the  dead.  If 
they  were  placed  in  a  grave  it  was  customary  to  make 
use  of  a  coffin,  which  was  let  down  into  the  grave  by 
the  bearers.  We  see  this  represented  on  the  vase 


FIG.  110. 

picture,  Fig.  110.  Two  men,  who  look  like  barbarian 
slaves  or  men  of  the  lower  classes,  are  standing  in  the 
grave  and  holding  up  their  hands  in  order  to  receive  the 
coffin,  which  is  carefully  let  down  by  two  men  of  similar 
appearance ;  on  the  right  and  left  stand  weeping 
women.  The  coffins  were  sometimes  made  of  wood, 
especially  Cyprus  wood,  which  was  occasionally  decorated 
with  costly  carving  and  painting ;  sometimes  of  clay, 
less  often  of  stone,  although  stone  sarcophagi  have 
been  found  hi  Greece,  but  the  custom  of  decorating 
their  sides  with  sculptured  pictures  did  not  become 
common  until  the  Roman  period.  The  shapes  of  the 


SICKNESS   AND    PHYSICIANS,    DEATH    AND    BURIAL.    253 

coffins  differed  ;  there  were  square  box-like  coffins,  ami 
also  others  of  an  oval  shape,  or  pointed  coffins,  made 
of  flat  terra-cotta  tiles.  Poor  people  were  generally 
buried  in  some  common  cemetery,  in  simple  coffins, 
and  in  graves  made  to  hold  a  large  number.  Richer 
people  had  special  vaults,  which  were  either  constructed 


FIG.  111. 


by  hollowing  out  the  rocky  ground  below  or  above  the 
earth,  or  by  the  artificial  building  up  of  a  tumulus. 
The  curious  tJtulos  buildings  of  Mycenae,  Orcho- 
menus,  Attica,  etc.,  are  generally  supposed  now  to  be 
nothing  but  large  vaults  of  this  description;  and, 
indeed,  throughout  the  whole  of  Greece,  Sicily,  and 
Lower  Italy,  numerous  tombs,  either  vaulted  out  of 
the  rock  or  constructed  of  large  blocks  of  stone,  have 
been  discovered,  not  to  speak  of  the  temples  and  towers 
which  are  chiefly  found  in  Asia  Minor,  and  usually 
appear  to  be  due  to  non-Greek  origin  or  influence.  In 


254  GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 

these  vaults,  which  often  served  for  whole  families,  they 
laid  their  d.ead,  either  in  coffins  or  without  them,  merely 
in  their  grave  clothes,  generally  resting  on  a  flat  stone. 
Thus  the  Attic  vase  picture  in  Fig.  Ill  represents  the 
dead  man  in  his  tomb,  the  vaulting  of  which  the  painter 
has  imitated,  wrapped  in  a  white  cloth,  a  cushion  under 
his  head ;  fillets  hang  down  from  above.  In  Attica  it 
was  the  custom  to  place  the  bodies  so  that  their  heads 
turned  to  the  west  and  their  feet  to  the  east,  while  the 
opposite  position  was  usual  at  Megara,  where  the 
customs  differed  in  other  ways,  and  three  or  four 
corpses  were  sometimes  put  in  the  same  coffin.  The 
custom  of  placing  various  objects  required  in  daily  life  in 
the  grave  by  the  side  of  the  dead  man  was  universal, 
chiefly  the  things  with  which  he  had  been  occupied  in 
his  lifetime,  or  which  belonged  to  his  profession; 
clothes,  money,  oil-flasks,  and  other  vases  were  put  in, 
and  besides  them,  in  the  case  of  a  child,  his  toys ;  in  the 
case  of  a  warrior  his  arms  ;  a  woman's  spindle  or  orna- 
ments and  mirror  ;  a  young  man's  strigil  and  oil-flask  ;  a 
musician's  flute  or  lyre.  We  owe  nearly  all  the  small 
art  treasures  which  have  come  down  to  us  from 
antiquity,  such  as  vases,  terra-cottas,  cameos,  gold 
ornaments,  caskets,  etc.,  to  this  custom  of  adorning  the 
graves  of  the  dead  with  the  objects  used  in  daily  life. 
Many  of  these,  especially  vases,  lamps,  candlesticks, 
arms,  etc.,  seem  to  have  been  specially  made  with  a 
view  to  being  placed  in  the  grave,  since  they  were  often 
of  no  use  for  practical  purposes.  There  were  no  doubt 
special  places  outside  the  walls  devoted  to  burning  the 
bodies,  though  it  is  quite  possible  that  some  people 
were  burnt  on  their  own  land  if  that  happened  to  be 
large  enough.  Wood,  twigs,  and  other  easily-com- 
bustible substances  were  used  for  erecting  a  pile ;  the 
body  was  laid  on  it,  along  with  the  cushions  destined 


SICKNESS   AND   PHYSICIANS,    DEATH    AND   BURIAL.    255 

to  be  burnt,  among  which,  besides  the  objects  already 
mentioned,  the  favourite  animals  of  the  dead  were  often 
included;  and  the  pile  was  lighted  with  a  torch. 
Round  about  stood  the  mourners,  who  called  aloud 
many  times  on  the  dead,  bidding  him  farewell.  There 
do  not  appear  to  have  been  any  other  ceremonies 
connected  with  the  funeral,  nor  did  it  bear  a  specially 
religious  character,  such  as  would  be  given  it  by  the 
presence  of  priests  or  the  offering  of  sacrifices;  still, 
we  must  not  forget  that  the  mere  act  of  burying 
or  burning  was  regarded  as  a  religious  one.  Funeral 
orations  were  only  pronounced  in  the  case  of  soldiers 
who  had  fallen  in  war,  or  men  who  had  deserved 
specially  well  of  their  country.  When  the  corpse 
was  consumed  by  the  fire  and  the  pile  had  burned 
down,  the  glowing  remains  were  quenched  with 
water  or  wine.  This  act  is  represented  on  a  vase 
painting  (Fig.  112),  which  gives  a  scene  from  the 
Apotheosis  of  Hercules.  The  ashes  and  pieces 
of  bone  which  had  not  been  completely  consumed 
were  then  collected  and  put  in  a  special  vessel 
For  this  purpose  they  used  urns,  coffin-like  boxes,  and 
small  vessels,  which  were  afterwards  placed  in  larger 
cases.  These  were  constructed  of  different  materials, 
clay  or  stone,  brass,  lead,  sometimes  even  silver  or  gold. 
The  urns  were  then  placed,  like  the  coffins,  in  a  vault 
or  under  the  earth. 

When  the  burying  or  burning  was  ended,  it  was 
the  custom  for  the  relations  and  intimate  friends  of 
the  deceased  to  return  to  the  house  of  the  latter,  and 
after  both  the  house  and  its  inhabitants  had  been 
purified  from  the  pollution  connected  with  the  death, 
by  means  of  incense  and  sprinkling,  or  washing  with 
consecrated  water,  they  took  part  together  in  a  funeral 
banquet.  At  this  the  near  relations,  who  had  hitherto 


250 


GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 


refrained  from  food,  or  at  any  rate  from  meat,  for  the 
first  time  again  partook  of  it,  a  custom  which  could 
probably  only  be  carried  out  when  the  funeral  took 
place  on  the  second  day  after  the  death.  On  the  third 


FIG.  112. 


and  ninth  days  after,  the  nearest  relations  went  to  tl.e 
grave  with  libations,  which  consisted  in  part  of  blood- 
less offerings,  such  as  milk,  honey,  wine,  etc.,  and 
partly  in  the  sacrifice  of  real  victims.  On  the  spot 
where  the  body  or  the  ashes  were  buried,  unless  the 
remains  were  placed  in  some  vault  above  the  earth, 
they  erected  a  funeral  monument,  which  bore  the 
name  of  the  family  and  home  of  the  deceased,  some- 
times in  metrical  form ;  and  even  gave  details  about 


Fio.    T3 


258  GREEK   LIFE  AT   HOME. 

his  life  and  his  virtues.  This  was  usually  decorated 
in  an  artistic  manner.  The  commonest  form  was 
the  "Stele,"  which  was  sometimes  a  tall  column, 
at  others  merely  a  horizontal  gravestone,  and  re- 
presented the  dead  man  in  some  occupation  of  daily 
life.  A  boy  might  be  seen  playing  with  his  ball,  and 
a  girl  with  her  doll ;  a  young  man  holds  his  quoit ;  a 
strong  warrior  stands  fully  armed  as  though  ready 
to  depart ;  a  countryman  accompanied  by  his  faithful 
dog,  leans  on  his  knotted  stick;  a  young  wife  sits 
near  her  work-basket  or  gazes  with  pleasure  at  her 
ornaments,  like  the  one  represented  on  the  relief  in 
Fig.  113,  where  the  lady  seems  to  be  taking  a  ring 
from  a  jewel  case  held  for  her  by  her  attendants  ; 
others  represent  the  dead  person  alone  or  with  others, 
not  engaged  in  any  occupation,  but  in  some  simple 
natural  attitude,  like  the  two  women  on  the  stone 
represented  in  Fig.  114 ;  others  suggest  death,  since  the 
relations  are  taking  leave  of  a  member  of  a  family. 
On  one  it  is  the  mother  who  is  dying,  and  the  small- 
est of  the  children  is  creeping  up  to  her  (compare  Fig. 
62),  or  they  are  holding  out  to  her  a  child  still 
wrapped  in  swaddling  clothes  for  her  last  kiss  (com- 
pare Fig.  58) ;  the  husband  steps  to  his  wife,  who  is 
resting  in  an  easy  chair,  and  gives  her  his  hand  for  a 
last  farewell,  with  an  expression  of  sorrow  mingled 
with  self-control  On  some  tombstones  of  a  longer 
shape  the  family  meal  is  represented;  the  husband 
lies  on  the  couch,  the  wife  sits  near  him,  the  children 
are  pressing  around  them,  and  even  the  faithful 
animals,  the  dog  and  favourite  horse,  are  not  for- 
gotten. This  subject  is  a  very  common  one ;  some- 
times it  is  a  simple  scene  from  daily  life,  sometimes 
the  master  is  represented  in  a  more  heroic  attitude 
AS  already  ffeacj^  and  his  relations  are  paying  the 


Pxo.  114. 


200 


GREEK    LIFE   AT   HOME. 


departed  the  fitting  honour  and  adoration.  There  seems 
to  be  little  attempt  at  representing  real  portraits  on 
most  Greek  tombstones;  they  are  ideal  types,  often  of 
extraordinary  beauty,  now  and  then,  perhaps,  with 
some  slight  resemblance  to  the  dead,  but  by  no  means 
realistic  portrait  statues.  But  whether  it  is  a  scene 


Fio.  115. 


:~:):n  real  life  that  is  represented  by  art,  or  the  bitter 
last  farewell,  or  whether  it  is  any  hint  of  the  life  in  a 
future  state,  which  last  is  by  no  means  uncommon, 
these  reliefs  are  always  distinguished  by  their  modera- 
tion in  the  expression  of  pain,  and  a  peaceful  feeling  ot 
calm  and  worthy  expression  of  sorrow,  which  can  but 
have  an  elevating  effect  even  on  those  who  have 
grown  up  in  the  views  of  Christianity.  This  is  the 
case  even  where  some  simple  stonemason  has  roughly 
expressed  in  stone  the  thought  of  parting  and 
reunion ;  how  much  more,  then,  in  those  magnificent 


i 


262  GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 

creations  of  the  finest  period  of  Attic  art  to  which  the 
examples  represented  above  belong. 

There  were  many  other  shapes  adopted  for  these 
tombstones.  Very  often  the  stelai  were  decorated 
with  painting  instead  of  reliefs;  in  some  the  sur- 
face was  extended  and  the  background  hollowed  out, 
which  gave  them  an  altar-like  character,  and  they  were 
often  framed  in  correspondingly  by  pillars  and  gables. 
Occasionally  the  stones  bore  the  shape  of  a  vase, 
especially  of  the  oil-flask,  so  important  in  its  asso- 
ciation with  death,  and  this,  too,  might  be  decorated 
with  sculpture.  Sometimes  they  set  low  columns 
of  round  or  square  shape  on  the  grave,  on  which 
they  often  represented  a  siren,  who  had  a  special 
significance  as  singer  of  mourning  songs ;  sometimes 
whole  statues — ideal  pictures  or  portraits  of  the  de- 
ceased— were  placed  there,  though  the  custom  was 
more  common  hi  the  Hellenic  period  than  hi  the 
best  ages  of  art. 

Childish  affection  and  belief  led  them  to  decorate 
these  graves  still  further  with  wreaths,  fillets,  growing 
plants,  etc.  These  were  often  renewed,  and  especially 
on  the  anniversaries  of  birth  and  death  the  relations 
came  with  libations  and  sacrifices,  pouring  out  sweet 
odours  or  wine,  or  by  other  means  showed  that  the 
memory  of  the  departed  was  not  gone  from  them. 
There  are  many  pictures  extant,  especially  on  vases} 
depicting  the  care  of  the  graves.  Fig.  115,  from  a  vaso 
painting,  shows  two  women  approaching  a  stele, 
carrying  plates  with  flasks  and  fillets.  Similarly,  hi 
Fig.  116,  the  weeping  woman  at  the  end  of  the  stele 
is  drawn  with  especial  grace. 

Thus  the  Greeks  held  the  memory  of  then*  dead 
worthily  in  honour,  although  their  time  of  mourning 
did  not  last  nearly  as  long  as  is  customary  with  us,  but 


FIG.   117. 


264  GREEK    LIFE   AT    HOME. 

was  generally  limited  to  one  or  a  few  months.  Even 
in  the  case  of  those  who  had  died  away  from  home, 
and  whose  remains  could  not  be  brought  back,  as, 
for  instance,  those  who  were  drowned  at  sea,  or 
altogether  lost  to  sight,  they  erected  cenotaphs,  in 
order  to  have  some  spot  with  which  to  connect  the 
ceremonies  devoted  to  the  memory  of  the  dead.  The 
tombstone  represented  in  Fig.  117  was  probably  that 
of  a  man  who  had  lost  his  life  in  some  such  way, 
perhaps  in  a  shipwreck.  The  relief  shows  the  dead 
man  sitting  sadly  on  land  near  his  ship,  and  gazing 
towards  his  distant  home  which  he  was  not  permitted 
to  see  again.  In  the  empty  space  below,  his  name  and 
probably  also  the  details  of  his  death  were  inscribed 
in  writing,  which  has  now  been  effaced. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

GYMNASTICS. 

Jumping — Use  of  Dumb-bells — Running — The  Torch-race — Qnoit> 
throwing — The  Javelin — Wrestling — Boxing — Pancration — Pen* 
tathlon — Ball-games — Archery — Training. 

WE  have  already  had  occasion  to  allude  to  the  im- 
portant part  played  by  gymnastics  in  Greek  life.  In 
the  Doric  states  it  was  the  basis  of  the  education  of 
girls  as  well  as  boys,  and  even  at  Athens  the  training 
of  the  body  was  an  important  feature  of  the  education 
of  boys  and  youths,  and  was  also  diligently  cultivated 
even  afterwards  for  the  sake  of  developing  and 
strengthening  the  body.  We  have  now  to  consider 
the  most  important  of  these  gymnastic  exercises,  and 
the  mode  in  which  they  were  carried  on,  dealing  first 
with  the  easier  and  simpler  ones,  and  afterwards  with 
the  more  difficult  and  complicated. 

One  of  the  chief  exercises  in  the  gymnastic 
schools  and  at  the  sports  was  jumping.  Along  with 
running,  quoit-throwing,  wrestling,  and  boxing,  jump- 
ing was  regarded  even  in  the  Homeric  age  as  part 
of  gymnastics,  but  we  know  very  little  of  the  mode 
in  which  it  was  practised.  In  the  historic  period 
we  find  the  same  kinds  of  jumping  as  at  the  pre- 
sent day,  namely,  the  high  jump,  the  long  jump, 
and  the  high  long  jump ;  among  these  the  long  jump 
was  of  the  first  importance,  and  was  the  only  one 
in  use  at  the  contests.  While  we,  however,  Confine 


266  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

ourselves  more  to  the  jump  with  or  without  a  spring- 
board, and  use  no  artificial  means  except  perhaps 
a  pole,  in  ancient  times  weights  (dXrijpes)  were 
largely  in  use,  and  though  they  required  a  greater 
effort  on  the  part  of  the  jumper  on  account  of  the 
additional  weight,  yet  they  gave  him  some  advantage 
by  increasing  the  impetus.  These  weights  are  simply 
dumb-bells  made  of  metal  or  stone,  and  resemble  in 
shape  those  which  we  use  at  the  present  day  for  very 
different  purposes.  There  were  two  kinds.  The  older 
form  resembled  the  segment  of  a  circle,  somewhat 
smaller  than  a  semicircle,  part  of  the  circle  being 
used  as  a  handle.  This  older  kind  of  dumb-bell,  which 
is  represented  on  many  vase  pictures,  was  used  in  later 
times  chiefly  for  hygienic  purposes.  Another  kind 
came  into  general  use  for  sports,  and  especially  the 
Pentathlon;  these  exactly  resembled  our  modern 
dumb-bells,  for  which,  indeed,  they  served  as  models.  A 
round  ball  is  fastened  at  either  end  of  a  massive 
handle,  bent  into  something  of  a  curve,  and  some- 
times— especially  when  they  were  used  not  merely 
to  exercise  the  arms  but  in  leaping — one  of  these 
balls  was  larger  and  heavier  than  the  other,  and  this, 
in  the  leap,  was  thrust  forward. 

We  are  expressly  told  thai  these  dumb-bells  were 
also  used  in  ancient  gymnastics  for  strengthening  the 
shoulders,  arms,  and  ringers,  and  on  many  old  vase 
paintings,  where  we  see  dumb-bells  in  the  hands  of 
youths,  the  attitude  suggests  such  exercises  and  not 
jumping.  In  the  painting  represented  in  Fig.  118  one 
of  the  men  holds  two  such  dumb-bells  in  his  hands ; 
it  is  not  easy  to  decide  whether  he  is  preparing  to 
jump,  as  is  usually  supposed,  or  is  only  practising 
dumb-bell  exercises.  Still,  the  latter  seems  to  have 
been  a  subordinate  use  only,  and  the  chief  use  of  the 


GYMNASTICS. 


267 


dumb-bell  was  in  jumping.  In  running,  previous  to 
jumping,  they  held  the  dumb-bells  behind  them,  and 
at  the  moment  of  jumping  thrust  the  arms  violently 
forward  ;  the  impulse  given  by  the  weight  then  com- 
municated itself 
also  to  the  legs, 
and  enabled 
them  to  cover  a 
longer  distance. 
We,  therefore, 
often  find  jump- 
ers represented 
in  pictures  hold- 
ing their  arms 
stretched  in 
front  of  them ; 
and  practical  at- 
tempts in  recent 
times  have  con- 
vinced us  that 
the  importance 
of  the  dumb- 
bells in  jumping 
was  due  not  so 
much  to  a  back- 
ward motion 
communicated 
by  them,  as  to 
the  thrusting  forward  of  the  arms.  On  springing 
down  the  arms  were  thrust  backward  again,  as  we  may 
also  learn  from  the  pictures,  and  thus  a  firm  and 
safe  standing  posture  was  attained.  In  the  caso  of  the 
youth  represented  with  dumb-bells  in  Fig.  119,  taken 
from  an  engraved  discus  (compare  below,  Fig.  126),  it 
is  uncertain  whether  he  is  using  them  merely  to 


268  GREEK   LIFE  AT  HOME. 

exercise  his  arms  or  to  help  him  in  jumping ;  possibly 
he  is  taking  a  preliminary  run.  Other  representations 
of  jumpers  are  given  below,  in  Figs.  121  and  127.  It 
is  very  probable  that  these  spring- weights  were  used 
for  the  long  jump,  but  not  for  the  high  jump,  where 
they  would  be  rather  an  impediment  than  an  assistance. 
Another  difficult  question  is  whether  the  ancients 
made  use  of  leaping-poles.  There  is  not  a  single 
picture  of  which  we  can  say  with  certainty  that  it  re- 
presents exercises  with  a  leaping-pole,  although  on  vase 
paintings  of  gymnastic 
scenes  we  do  very  fre- 
quently see  sticks  or 
poles,  but  it  is  always 
possible  to  find  another 
interpretation  for  these. 
Thus  they  may  be  jave- 
lins, such  as  were  used 
for  throwing,  or  measur- 
ing rods,  with  which  the 
superintending  teachers 
or  judges  measured  the 
length  of  a  jump  or  a 
quoit-throw,  or  they  may  be  merely  sticks  carried  in 
token  of  official  position.  None  of  the  writers  afford 
any  direct  information  about  the  use  of  leaping-poles  ; 
they  are  hardly  mentioned  except  in  references  to 
occasional  leaps  over  trenches  with  the  help  of  a 
pole,  and  mounting  horses  by  help  of  a  lance ;  and, 
accordingly,  we  may  infer  that  they  did  not  play  an 
important  part  in  ancient  gymnastics. 

Another  disputed  question  is  whether  the  ancients 
used  a  spring-board.  Some  references  among  the 
later  writers  seem  to  suggest  that  they  made  use  of 
a  little  elevation  (/Scmfc),  from  which  they  took  the 


FIG.  119. 


GYMNASTICS.  269 

long  jump,  which  was  far  the  commonest  and  the  only 
kind  in  use  in  the  contests.  There  is  nothing,  how- 
ever, to  show  that  this  elevation  was  of  wood,  and 
thus  gave  the  jumper  an  advantage  in  consequence  of 
its  elasticity ;  it  seems  to  have  been  only  a  little 
mound  of  earth.  The  course  of  events  was  something 
of  this  sort:  all  who  took  part  in  the  contest  took 
their  stations  in  a  row  behind  a  line  drawn  in  the  sand 
of  the  wrestling  school,  and  jumped  from  there  hi 
turn ;  of  course,  this  was  not  done  without  previous 
running,  for  some  of  the  achievements  of  the  ancients 
in  the  long  jump  would  have  been  quite  impossible 
without  running.  Accordingly,  they  must  have  run 
from  the  appointed  place  to  the  mound  and  jumped 
from  that.  Where  the  first  jumper  stopped  a  fresh 
line  was  drawn  with  a  pick-axe,  such  as  we  often  see 
on  vase  pictures  in  the  hand  of  a  youth  or  superinten- 
dent, and  they  were  also  used  to  loosen  the  earth  in 
order  to  lessen  the  shock  in  jumping  down.  Those 
that  followed,  of  course,  tried  to  jump  even  further, 
and  every  longer  jump  was  again  marked  by  a  line, 
while  the  short  ones  were  left  unnoticed,  unless,  as  in 
the  case  of  the  Pentathlon,  the  object  was  to  have 
several  victors.  Finally,  the  result  of  the  various 
jumps  was  determined  by  long  measuring  chains. 
What  the  ancient  writers  have  told  us  about  the 
wonderful  achievements  of  the  Greek  athletes  in  the 
long  jump,  sounds  almost  fabulous ;  especially  the 
story  about  Chionis,  who  is  said  to  have  jumped  52 
feet,  and  Phayllus,  who  jumped  55.  Modern  writers 
on  gymnastics  have  declared  these  statements  im- 
possible and  exaggerated,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
they  rest  on  good  authority ;  but  it  is  not  right  to 
declare  our  disbelief  simply  on  account  of  our  modern 
gymnastic  training,  which  is  entirely  different  from 


270  GREEK    LIFE    AT    IJo.ME. 

the  Greek,  since  the  elasticity  of  the  sinews  and 
the  muscles,  which  come  into  play  in  jumping,  has  not 
been  nearly  so  well  developed  from  earliest  youth  up- 
wards as  it  was  in  Greece ;  moreover,  these  accounts 
refer  to  especial  tours  de  fo^ce,  and  were  only  remark- 
able exceptions.  In  any  case,  Greeks  must  have 
demanded  a  great  deal  even  from  ordinary  jumpers, 
otherwise  they  would  not  have  considered  the  jump, 
which  in  itself  is  one  of  the  easiest  exercises,  one  of  the 
most  difficult  achievements  in  the  gymnastic  contests. 
Running  is  already  mentioned  by  Homer  among 
the  sports  practised  by  the  youth  of  Phaeacia;  it  was 
very  popular,  too,  in  after  times,  and  formed  an 
important  part  of  the  gymnastic  contests  which  took 
place  at  the  great  Hellenic  'festivals.  Speed  was  not 
of  as  much  importance  as  endurance,  and  overcoming 
difficulties  of  ground  ;  for  they  did  not  run  on  firm 
earth,  but  in  soft  sand,  where  it  was  doubly  difficult 
to  run  fast,  since  the  feet  sank  in  if  they  were  too 
firmly  set  down.  There  were  four  kinds  of  racing, 
according  to  the  length  of  the  course :  the  single 
course  (a-rdSiov),  the  double  course  (S/auXo?),  the  horse 
race  (IWto?  fyo/io?),  and  the  long  course  (SoX^o?). 
The  single  course  was  the  length  of  the  race-course, 
or  stadium — that  is,  six  hundred  feet;  the  runner 
had  to  measure  the  course  from  beginning  to  end. 
In  the  double  course  the  same  space  was  passed 
over  in  both  directions — that  is,  twice.  In  the  horse 
race  they  ran  twice  backwards  and  forwards,  conse- 
quently four  stadia,  which  therefore  was  the  length  of 
the  course  on  horseback,  and  hence  its  name.  There 
are  very  different  accounts  about  the  length  of  the 
long  course ;  seven,  twelve,  twenty,  and  even  twenty- 
four  stadia  have  been  mentioned ;  the  last  (about 
three  miles')  seems  to  have  been  the  usual  length  at 


GYMNASTICS.  271 

Olympia.  It  is  impossible  to  say  whether  these 
various  statements  are  due  to  erroneous  calculations 
or  differing  customs ;  still  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt 
even  the  longest  course  mentioned,  since  many  of  our 
modem  runners  can  achieve  far  greater  distances,  so 
that  a  course  of  twenty-four  stadia  might  very  well 
have  been  required  as  the  highest  achievement  of  a 
good  athlete.  Our  authorities,  however,  do  not  inform 
us  what  degree  of  speed  was  usual.  We  know  that 
the  educational  and  practical  value  of  running  de- 
pended not  only  on  the  attainment  of  great  speed 
over  a  short  distance,  but  also  on  the  endurance 
necessary  for  achieving  a  long  distance ;  and  among 
the  exercises  in  the  gymnasia  they  probably  laid  as 
much  stress  on  an  even  pace  in  the  long  races  as  on 
speed.  But  when  running  was  practised  at  the  con- 
tests, the  moderation  in  speed  of  course  gave  way  to 
the  attempt  to  be  first  in  the  race  and  in  conse- 
quence we  hear  of  cases  in  which  the  victorious 
runner,  on  reaching  the  winning-post,  fell  down  dead 
in  consequence  of  excessive  exertion,  like  the  runner 
Ladas,  whose  statue  Myron  made.  Therefore,  the 
runners,  as  well  as  others  who  engaged  in  gymnastic 
contests,  were  in  the  habit  of  previously  rubbing  their 
bodies  with  oil  in  order  to  make  their  limbs  flexible. 
In  running,  three  or  five  generally  entered  at  the 
same  time  ;  when  there  were  more  they  seem  to  have 
been  divided  into  parties  of  four,  and  in  that  case  the 
winning  party  had  to  run  once  more  to  decide  the 
final  victory.  The  signal  for  running  was  given  by 
the  dropping  of  a  rope  stretched  out  in  front  of  the 
runners  ;  in  running,  they  either  held  their  arms  with 
the  elbows  closely  pressed  to  their  sides  or  swung 
them  violently  and  regularly  backwards  and  forwards, 
corresponding  in  time  to  the  feet ;  the  former  attitude 


272 


GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 


was  probably  reserved  for  the  long  course,  when  it 
was  a  question  of  preserving  an  equal  speed,  and  the 
latter  for  the  quickest  course,  in  which  the  swinging 
of  the  arms  might  be  a  help;  even  here,  however, 
the  rule  held  that  a  good  runner  should  adopt  a 
slower  motion  at  first,  and  only  gradually  proceed  to 
his  greatest  speed.  The  pictures  of  runners,  which 


FIG.  120. 


are  very  common  on  vase  pictures,  especially  on  the 
so-called  Panathenaic  prize  amphorae,  generally 
show  the  peculiarity  of  holding  the  front  leg  very 
high  up,  while  the  other  is  set  far  backAvards,  and 
seems  only  to  touch  the  ground  with  the  toes.  Now 
in  ordinary  pictures  of  runners  we  generally  see  the 
front  leg  resting  on  the  ground  and  the  other  thrown 
out  far  behind,  and  this  is  sometimes  found  on  antique 
pictures,  but  less  often ;  we  therefore  must  suppose 
that  quick  running  in  ancient  times  consisted  rather 
in  a  series  of  wide  jumps,  in  which  only  the  toes 
touched  the  ground.  In  the  vase  painting  repre- 


GYMNASTICS. 


273 


sen  ted  in  Fig.  120  we  see  four  runners  moving  thus 
from  left  to  right ;  their  left  legs  are  thrown  far 
forward,  their  right  legs  back,  and  the  arms  swing 
with  a  motion  corresponding  to  that  of  the  legs.  The 
hypothesis  formerly  current  that  on  the  vase  paintings 
the  runners  from  left  to  right  are  running  the  single, 


Fio.  121. 


those  from  right  to  left  the  long  course,  is,  however, 
not  tenable.  The  two  men  practising,  on  the  vase 
picture  Fig.  121,  are  jumping  in  exactly  the  same 
manner;  behind  them  another  man  is  preparing  to 
jump  with  dumb-bells,  near  them  stands  a  teacher  or 
superintendent  in  a  cloak,  with  a  switch  in  his  hand ; 
on  the.  ground  lies  a  quoit. 

In  ancient  times,  runners  usually  wore  some 
drapery  round  their  loins,  but  afterwards  they  had  no 
clothing  at  all.  There  was,  however,  a  special  kind  of 
race,  called  "  armour-race,"  (oTrXn-oSpo/u'a),  which  was 


274 


GREEK   LIFE   AT    HOME. 


not  introduced  into  the  Olympic  games  till  the  ycur 
520,  in  which  the  runners  wore  the  heavy  armour  of 
Hoplites.  In  ancient  times,  they  seem  to  have  run  in 

full  armour-- 
that is,  with 
helmet,  cuirass, 
greaves,  sword 
and  spear; 
afterwards,  if 
we  may  trust 
the  reprtsentar 
tions  on  the 
the 


^  armour  race 
2  consisted  in 
g  running  with 
helmet  and 
round  shield, 
as  in  Fig.  122. 
This  kind  ot 
race,  which, 
of  course,  re- 
quired still 
greater  exer- 
tion, seems  to 
have  been  only 
in  use  for  the 
single  and  double  course,  and  chiefly  for  the  latter, 
but  not  for  the  horse-course,  or  the  long  course. 

The  torch-race  (Xa/iTraSoSpo/ua)  was  more  a  matter 
of  skill  than  of  speed  or  bodily  strength.  This  was 
especially  popular  at  Athens,  and  there  constituted  an 
important  part  of  certain  festivals,  especially  the 
Panathenaea,  and  the  festivals  of  Hephaestus  and 
Prometheus,  but  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  gym- 


GYMNASTICS.  275 

nastic  contests  at  the  great  national  games.  The 
youths  who  took  part  in  the  torch-race,  lighted  their 
torches  at  an  altar  in  the  Academy,  and  ran  together 
from  there,  with  burning  torches  to  some  appointed 
place  in  the  town.  In  this  race  the  victor  was  not  he 
who  ran  fastest,  but  he  who  first  arrived  at  the  goal  with 
a  burning  torch.  It  was  important,  therefore,  to  run 
quickly,  and  at  the  same  tune  cautiously,  so  that  the 
torch  might  not  be  put  out.  The  expenses  of  the 
arrangements,  which,  however,  cannot  have  been  very 
considerable,  belonged  to  the  so-called  Liturgies,  the 
charges  voluntarily  undertaken  by  certain  wealthy 
citizens.  They  also  had  to  superintend  the  practising, 
or,  at  any  rate,  to  see  to  its  being  done.  If  we  may 
judge  from  ancient  representations  of  the  torch-race, 
the  runners  sometimes,  besides  the  torch,  bore  a 
shield  on  their  left  arm,  and  also  some  head-covering, 
and,  since  it  was  not  really  a  question  of  great  speed, 
some  light  article  of  clothing. 

In  the  third  place,  we  must  consider  quoit-throw- 
ing. This  exercise,  in  which  the  object  was  to  throw 
a  heavy  disc  as  far  as  possible,  is  also  mentioned  in 
the  Odyssey.  The  youth  of  Phaeacia  played  it,  but 
Odysseus  excels  them  all,  and  sends  the  disc  hurled 
by  him  beyond  all  the  marks  of  the  other  players. 
Quoits  are  also  mentioned  as  an  amusement  of  the 
suitors,  and  among  the  funeral  games  in  honour  of 
Patroclus.  Homer  mentions  stone  and  iron  quoits ; 
in  later  times  metal,  chiefly  iron  or  bronze,  was  the 
commonest  material.  They  were  round  and  flat  in 
shape,  somewhat  raised  on  each  side,  with  a  diameter 
of  about  a  foot,  and  were,  therefore,  very  heavy,  and 
not  easy  to  grasp  on  account  of  their  smoothness. 
The  descriptions  of  ancient  writers  and  monuments 
give  us  a  very  clear  idea  of  the  manner  in  which  these 


Fio.   12? 


GYMNASTICS.  277 

discs  were  thrown.  The  quoit-player,  first  of  all,  took 
a  firm  stand,  and  while  he  measured  the  space  over 
which  he  had  to  throw  his  disc,  he  held  it  in  his 
left  hand  in  order  not  to  tire  the  right  too  soon  ; 
this  is  the  position  in  which  we  see  the  standing 
"Discobolus"  in  the  Vatican,  represented  in  Fig.  123. 
The  attitude  adopted  when  actually  throwing  is  best 
given  by  the  Discobolus  of  Myron,  which  has  come  down 
to  us  in  several  copies,  and  which  is  thus  described  by 
Lucian :  "  He  is  stooping  down  to  take  aim,  (his  body) 
turned  in  the  direction  of  the  hand  which  holds  the 
quoit,  one  knee  slightly  bent,  as  though  he  meant  to 
vary  his  posture  and  rise  with  the  throw."  The 
thrower,  therefore,  bent  his  whole  body  somewhat  in 
the  moment  when  he  threw  back  the  right  hand  with 
the  disc,  in  order  to  give  it  the  necessary  impulse, 
pressing  his  left  leg  firmly  on  the  ground,  and  digging 
his  toes  into  the  sand,  at  the  same  time  bending  the 
right  knee  in  order  to  give  the  disc  increased  power 
by  springing  up  from  his  bent  position  at  the  moment 
of  throAving.  In  this  attitude  the  position  of  the  head 
followed  the  whole  direction  of  the  body  with  a  slight 
inclination  to  the  right  (the  left  jf  :he  spectator),  as 
we  may  learn  from  the  best  copies  preserved  to  us  of 
Myron's  Discobolus,  a  statue  in  the  Palazzo  Massimi, 
at  Rome,  and  a  bronze  statuette  at  Munich ;  the 
downward  bending  of  the  head,  in  the  Vatican  copy, 
represented  in  Fig.  124,  and  on  the  other  replicas  of 
the  statue,  is  due  to  a  mistake  in  restoration.  We 
may  also  assume  with  some  certainty  that  they  did 
not  remain  on  the  same  spot  at  the  moment  of  throw- 
ing, but  had  space  enough  to  run  a  little  way  forward, 
as  is  done  even  now  in  playing  skittles — a  game  which 
differs  but  little  from  quoit-playing — for  the  force  of 
the  throw  would  be  checked  by  remaining  in  one 


278  GREEK  LIFE   AT   HOME. 

place.  Thus  the  bronze  statue,  Fig.  125  (though  this 
is  sometimes  interpreted  as  a  wrestler  running  to  the 
attack),  shows  the  disc  thrower  running  forward  a 
few  steps,  the  upper  part  of  his  body  bent  forwards, 
and  trying  to  follow  the  result  of  his  throw.  Probably 
the  little  elevation  from  which,  according  to  the 
ancient  writers,  the  thrower  hurled  the  quoit,  supplied 
the  necessary  space  for  this  forward  movement,  and 
the  extreme  edge  of  this  elevation  (/SaX/Si?)  was  also 
the  limit  which,  in  case  of  a  contest  prevented  any 
from  running  further  than  others,  or  throwing  their 
discus  from  a  nearer  point,  so  that  the  conditions  of 
the  contest  might  be  alike  for  all  The  umpires  or 
superintendents  carefully  marked,  by  lines  or  some 
other  means,  the  place  to  which  each  combatant  threw 
his  disc,  and  he  whose  quoit  flew  the  farthest  was 
the  victor. 

Quoit-throwing,  as  well  as  running  and  jumping, 
was  taught  even  to  boys,  but  undoubtedly  they  used 
smaller  and  lighter  discs  than  men.  The  disc  from 
Aegina,  now  in  the  Berlin  Museum,  one  side  of  which 
is  represented  above  in  Fig.  119,  was  only  eight  inches 
in  diameter,  and  about  four  pounds  weight,  but  was 
probably  never  used  as  an  actual  implement  of  the 
school 

Thro  whig  the  javelin  was  also  taught  hi  the  boys' 
gymnastic  schools.  This  was  originally  a  military 
exercise;  we  find  it  mentioned  in  heroic  times,  not 
only  as  a  mode  of  fighting,  but  also  as  a  game.  In  the 
gymnastic  schools  of  the  boys  and  youths  they  often 
used,  as  we  may  tell  from  the  pictures,  instead  of  a  real 
spear,  a  blunt  stick  of  about  the  same  length,  but  they 
must  sometimes  have  made  use  of  actual  spears  with 
sharp  points  for  their  exercises,  since  the  orator 
Antiphon  tells  us  that  one  of  the  older  boys  at  the 


FIG.  124. 


FIG.  12.-). 


GYMNASTICS.  281 

g^  mnasium  killed  a  younger  one,  who  had  by  mistake 
run  in  the  way,  and  this  would  have  been  impossible 
if  a  mere  stick  had  been  used.  Probably  the  weight 
of  the  spears  was  gradually  increased,  as  also  of  the 
quoits,  and  the  youths  used  heavier  weapons  than  the 
boys,  while  the  men  in  their  turn  used  still  heavier 
ones.  We  may,  however,  infer  that,  besides  throwing 
a  mere  stick  in  which  certainty  of  aim  would  be.  the 
object,  they  used  actual  spears,  and  studied  especial 
ways  of  managing  them,  since  the  javelin,  which  was 
supplied  with  a  loop  or  strap,  had  to  be  thrown  in  a 
quite  peculiar  way,  while  the  stick  had  no  loop,  and 
could  be  quite  differently  thrown.  This  loop  was  near 
the  lower  end  of  the  javelin  ;  the  thrower  put  the  first 
and  second  fingers  of  his  right  hand  through  it — some- 
times it  was  a  double  loop,  so  that  each  finger  grasped 
a  separate  strap — he  laid  his  thumb  on  the  wood  of  the 
spear,  which  rested  on  the  third  or  fourth  fingers 
placed  underneath,  or  else  on  the  third  finger  alone  ; 
in  this  position  the  hand  was  drawn  backwards  and 
then  aim  was  taken  at  some  definite  goal,  the  nature 
of  which  we  are  not  acquainted  with.  This  we  learn 
from  the  Berlin  disc  already  mentioned  (Fig.  126), 
and  also  from  various  vase  paintings,  and  the  figure 
of  the  giant  frieze  from  Pergamum.  The  throw  was 
either  horizontal,  if  distance  was  aimed  at,  which  was 
most  usual,  or  upwards  towards  some  raised  mark. 
Among  gymnastic  exercises  represented  in  a  vase 
painting  (Fig.  127),  throwing  the  spear  also  plays  a 
part.  We  see  here,  on  the  left  (near  the  handle),  a 
youth  represented  as  just  about  to  run ;  on  the  right, 
near  him,  a  second  is  practising  dumb-bells,  or  else  pre- 
paring to  jump.  Near  a  long-robed  flute-player,  whose 
music  is  accompanying  the  exercises,  a  spear- thrower 
is  running  forward,  but  his  face  is  not  turned  forward 


282  GREEK    LIFE    AT    HOME. 

to  the  mark,  but  backward  towards  the  hand  which 
holds  the  spear  (like  the  throwing  Discobolus),  so 
that  we  must  suppose  that  it  was  not  a  question  of 
throwing  the  spear  at  a  definite  mark,  but  only  of  send- 
ing it  as  far  as  possible.  Next  to  a  bearded  superin- 
tendent, wearing  a  cloak  and  holding  a  switch,  follows 
a  quoit-player,  who  h  about  to  throw  the  disc  which 
he  holds  in  the  right  hand.  Lastly,  we  have  a  pair  of 
boxers,  whose  attitude,  will  be  discussed  further  on. 
Other  representations 
show  us  that,  in  throw- 
ing upwards,  the  handle 
with  the  loop  was  held 
downwards,  but  in 
throwing  to  a  distance, 
if  the  object  was  to 
throw  as  far  as  possible, 
the  right  arm  was  dra-w  n 
back  as  in  Fig.  119  and 


here  ;  but  if  a  mark  was 
aimed  at,  the  upper  arm 
was  kept  in  a  horizontal 

position,  about  the  height  of  the  ear,  and  the  aim  care- 
fully taken  before  throwing.  The  javelin  used  in  gym- 
nastic exercises  and  contests  differs  from  that  used  in 
war  in  being  constructed  of  very  light  wood,  and 
having  no  lance-head  like  the  one  used  in  battle,  but, 
as  Fig.  119  shows,  a  very  thin  and  rather  long  head, 
obviously  in  order  that  the  spear  may  cling  more 
easily  to  the  mark  which  was  probably  made  of  wood. 
Throughout  the  whole  of  antiquity  the  favourite 
contest  was  wrestling,  and  the  importance  of  this 
depended  on  the  fact  that  the  whole  body  was 
exercised  at  the  same  tune,  and  all  the  muscles 
came  into  play ;  and  also  that  it  was  not  an  exercise 


284  GREEK  LIFE  AT  HOME. 

performed  by  one  single  man,  but  was  an  immediate 
measuring  of  strength  by  two  opponents,  and,  there- 
fore, even  more  than  the  other  contests,  required  full 
bodily  power.  Even  in  the  Homeric  age,  therefore, 
wrestling  played  an  important  part,  and  the  deep  hold 
it  took  on  Greek  life  is  shown  by  the  great  number 
of  technical  expressions  taken  from  wrestling  which  in 
metaphorical  form  found  their  way  into  the  ordinary 
e very-day  language  ;  no  other  exercise  had  so  large  a 
store  of  technical  expressions ;  indeed,  it  is  absolutely 
impossible  for  us  to  find  words  to  express  them 
all  at  the  present  day.  Wrestling,  like  other  gym- 
nastic exercises,  was  carried  on  at  first  with  some 
drapery  round  the  loins,  and  afterwards  without  any 
clothing.  As  a  preparation,  the  combatants  rubbed 
their  whole  bodies  with  oil,  with  a  view  to  making 
their  limbs  more  supple  and  elastic.  For  this  pur- 
pose there  were  special  rooms  in  the  gymnasia  and 
wrestling  schools,  in  which  stood  large  vessels,  filled 
with  oil,  from  which  they  filled  their  own  little  flasks ; 
then  they  poured  a  little  oil  out  of  these  into  their 
hands,  and  either  rubbed  their  bodies  with  it  or  else 
had  them  rubbed  by  one  of  the  attendants  of  the 
gymnasia  appointed  for  the  purpose  (aXe/Trr???).  But 
as  this  oiling  and  the  perspiration  which  resulted  from 
the  contest  would  have  made  the  body  too  smooth 
and  slippery,  and  absolutely  impossible  to  grasp, 
they  covered  themselves,  when  the  anointing  was 
finished,  with  fine  dust,  taken  from  special  pits,  or  else 
prepared  on  purpose.  This  was  supposed  also  to  serve 
a  hygienic  purpose,  for  it  was  assumed  that  the  dust 
prevented  excessive  perspiration,  and  in  consequence 
saved  the  strength  ;  it  was  also  regarded  as  advan- 
tageous because  it  closed  the  pores  and  sheltered 
them  from  the  air.  which  might  have  an  injurious 


GYMNASTICS.  285 

effect.  Oil,  perspiration,  dust,  and  also  the  soft  sand, 
which,  when  the  wrestlers  continued  their  contest 
on  the  ground,  clung  to  their  bodies,  together 
formed  a  thick  crust,  which  could  not  have  been 
completely  removed  by  a  mere  warm  bath  ;  therefore 
the  wrestlers  used  a  stlengis,  or  strigil,  for  cleansing 
their  bodies,  rubbing  off  the  dirt  partly  themsehcs 
and  partly  with  the  help  of  attendants,  and  afterwards 
took  a  warm  bath.  The  action  of  this  scraping, 
which,  hi  spite  of  its  unaesthetic  nature,  gave  rise  to 
many  graceful  attitudes,  has  been  often  plastically 
represented  by  artists ;  a  good  copy  has  come  down 
to  us  of  the  most  celebrated  of  these  figures,  the 
Apoxyomenos  of  Lysippus.  The  bath  was  usually 
followed  by  oiling  the  body  once  more,  because  the 
use  of  oil  was  regarded  as  good  for  the  health  and 
tending  to  strengthen  the  limbs.  As  already  men- 
tioned, this  anointing  was  accompanied  by  a  kind  of 
massage,  a  pressing  and  kneading  of  the  body,  which 
the  rubber  understood,  and  which  was  regarded  as  a 
hygienic  method,  so  that  one  who  was  specially  skilled 
in  it  was  called  a  medical-rubber  (i'aT/3aXe/7m?9),  and  in 
a  measure  combined  the  duties  of  physician  and 
rubber.  The  constant  exposure  to  fresh  air  and 
accustoming  of  the  naked  body  to  the  rays  of  the  sun, 
combined  with  the  oiling  and  dusting  mentioned  above, 
produced  in  the  wrestlers  especially,  though  to  some 
extent  in  all  the  athletes,  a  very  dark  complexion, 
which  the  ancients  regarded  as  a  mark  of  health 
and  of  manly  courage,  and  often  held  up  to  admiration 
in  contrast  to  the  pale  colouring  of  the  artisans  and 
stay-at-homes  who  "  sat  in  the  shade."  There  were 
two  principal  methods  in  ordinary  wrestling — stand- 
ing and  ground  wrestling.  In  the  first  kind  of 
contest  everything  depended  on  throwing  an  opponent, 


286  GREEK    LIFE    AT   HOME. 

either  by  skill,  or  by  certain  tricks  which  were  allowed 
in  wrestling,  in  such  a  way  that  his  shoulder  touched 
the  earth,  while  the  other  kept  his  position  ;  throwing 
once,  however,  did  not  decide  the  victory,  but  in  order 
to  be  victorious  in  the  standing  wrestling-bout  it  was 
necessary  for  a  man  to  throw  his  opponent  three  times 
in  this  manner  When  both  opponents  fell  together 
while  wrestling  without  clasping  each  other,  they 
jumped  up  and  began  the  contest  afresh ;  but  if  they 
grasped  each  other  firmly  when  they  fell,  so  that  the 
contest  was  not  yet  decided,  the  wrestling  usually 
passed  into  the  second  stage,  in  which  both  wrestled 
while  lying  on  the  ground,  when  now  one  now  the 
other  might  get  the  advantage,  until  one  of  the  two 
declared  himself  conquered,  and  gave  up  the  struggle. 
The  wrestlers  in  the  celebrated  Florentine  marble 
group,  represented  in  Fig.  128,  are  in  this  position. 
This  wrestling  on  the  ground,  however,  only  took  place 
in  the  boys'  gymnastic  school,  and  afterwards  in  the 
public  contests  of  Pancratiasts  (see  below,  page  296), 
and  professional  athletes ;  in  the  great  contests  and 
the  Pentathlon  only  standing  wrestling  was  allowed. 
The  mode  in  which  the  wrestlers  began  the  combat 
has  been  clearly  described  by  several  writers,  and 
often  represented  on  monuments.  Each  combatant 
took  his  place,  with  his  legs  somewhat  apart,  his  right 
foot  forward,  stretched  out  his  arms,  drew  his  head  a 
little  between  his  shoulders,  and  thrust  forward  the 
upper  part  of  his  body,  back,  shoulders,  and  neck,  in 
order  to  protect  the  lower  part  somewhat  from  the 
attack  of  his  opponent.  In  this  manner  the  com- 
batants stepped  towards  each  other,  each  watching  for 
the  moment  when  the  other  would  expose  himself  in 
some  way  of  which  he  could  take  advantage,  and  as 
they  were  naturally  both  as  much  as  possible  on  their 


FIG.   128. 


288 


GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 


guard,  it  was  often  a  considerable  time  before  they  could 
begin  the  contest  by  seizing  hold  of  their  opponents. 
But  when  it  was  once  begun,  the  masters  or  other  offi- 
cials who  superintended  watched  to  see  that  no  tricks 

contrary  to  tra- 
dition and  rule 
were  made  use 
of,  that  there  was 
no  hitting  or 
biting;  but  still, 
they  were  al- 
lowed to  make 
use  of  certain 
tricks  or  feints 
in  order  to  de- 
ceive the  enemy 
or  gain  an  ad- 
vantage over 
him.  Among 
the  methods  al- 
lowed was  throt- 
tling, either  by 
touching  the 
opponent's  neck 
or  throwing  an 
arm  round  it, 
or  pushing  the 
elbow  under 
his  chin,  and  sometimes  the  combatant  who  was 
attacked  in  this  way  was  forced  from  want  of 
breath  to  declare  himself  conquered,  even  without 
being  thrown  ;  similarly  his  opponent  might  force  him, 
by  pressing  his  body  together  to  abandon  the  contest ; 
and  in  the  ground  wrestling  it  sometimes  happened 
that  the  combatant  who  had  the  upper  hand  knelt 


GYMNASTICS. 


289 


^-J. 


down  on  the  one  who  had  been  thrown  to  the  ground 
and  throttled  him  until  he  asked  for  mercy.  Twisting 
and  bending  the  limbs  was  also  allowed,  thrusting  an 
arm  01  a  foot  into  the  opponent's  belly,  pushing  or  forcing 
him  from  the  spot,  ^  , 

which,  if  the  hands 
were  occupied,  was 
often  done  by  means 
of  the  forehead,  the 
two  combatants  dash- 
ing their  heads  against 
each  other  like  two 
angry  bulls;  this  was  a 
very  favourite  trick, 
and  is.  frequently 
shown  on  works  of  art. 
In  Fig.  129,  taken  from 
a  vase  painting  we  see 
two  wrestlers  who  have 
grappled,  each  hold- 
ing his  opponent's 
'  right  arm  with  his 
own  left;  their  fore- 
heads are  pressed  to- 
gether, one  has  draAvn 
back  his  right  foot  in 
order  to  increase  his 
resisting  power.  The 
combatants  in  Fig.  130,  are  fighting  in  a  similar  manner, 
the  left  hand  of  one  seizes  the  right  arm  of  his  opponent, 
while  his  right  arm  is  thrown  round  his  body ;  the  left 
hand  of  the  other  meantime  attacks  his  enemy's  back. 
On  the  left  a  superintendent,  who  wears  a  cloak,  and 
holds  a  branch  in  his  hand,  stands  looking  on  ;  on  the 
right  a  young  man  is  running  quickly  away.  Among 


290  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

the  permitted  feints  was  a  sudden  thrust  of  the  leg, 
which  hit  the  opponent's  knee  from  behind  with  the 
foot  in  such  a  manner  as  to  throw  him,  or,  if  this  was 
impossible,  a  similar  blow  was  attempted  on  the  side ; 
they  also  seized  an  opponent  by  the  leg  or  ankle  in 
such  a  way  as  to  lift  it  from  the  ground  with  a  violent 
impulse,  so  that  he  must  fall  backwards.  Sometimes 
a  strong  and  skilful  wrestler  would  put  his  arms  round 
his  opponent's  hips  in  such  a  way  as  to  lift  him  entirely 
from  the  ground,  and  turn  him  over  with  his  head 
downwards.  On  the  vase  painting  represented  in 
Fig.  131,  in  the  group  on  the  right,  one  of  the  wrestlers 
has  lifted  up  his  opponent  in  this  manner,  and  the 
latter  is  trying  to  free  himself  from  the  arms  which  are 
holding  him.  In  the  other  group,  one  of  the  wrestlers 
with  his  right  arm  seizes  the  left  arm  of  his  opponent 
and  tries  to  press  him  down  with  his  body,  thrusting 
his  head  over  the  left  shoulder  of  the  other  ;  the  latter, 
however,  thrusts  his  head  over  his  opponent's  back, 
and  with  his  right  arm  seizes  his  opponent's  right  arm 
from  behind.  The  richly-clad  youth  standing  by 
presents  an  almost  feminine  appearance,  holding  a 
staff  and  flower  in  his  hands,  and  it  is  not  clear  for  what 
purpose  he  is  there.  Similar  tricks  and  manoeuvres 
were  used  in  ground  wrestling.  Besides  this  they  also 
attempted  to  entangle  the  opponent's  legs  in  theirs,  in 
order  to  prevent  him  from  standing  up  again.  There 
were  a  great  many  similar  modes  or  plans  of  wrestling, 
all  with  a  special  terminology,  and  it  seems  as  though 
no  gymnastic  exercisehad  been  so  thoroughly  developed 
into  a  real  art  as  that  of  wrestling. 

Boxing,  which  we  hear  of  among  the  funeral  games 
in  honour  of  Patroclus,  was  also  practised  in  the 
historic  period,  but  as  a  mode  of  fighting  it  was  not 
ftctuallv  necessary  for  the  gymnastic  training  of  every 


292  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

Greek,  but  was  rather  studied  by  those  who  desired  to 
win  prizes  in  the  public  games,  and  to  obtain  honour 
and  reward  by  their  bodily  skill  and  strength.  We  are 
accustomed  to  regard  the  gymnastic  training  of  the 
Greeks  as  tending  not  only  to  the  development  of  the 
body,  but  also  to  that  of  the  mind ;  and  we  cannot  deny 
that  boxing,  especially  in  the  form  which  it  assumed 
in  the  course  of  centuries,  was  a  rough  sport,  and  that 
the  pleasure  which  the  Greeks  undoubtedly  took  hi 
watching  it,  though  not  quite  of  so  degrading  a  nature 
as  the  cruel  delight  taken  by  the  Romans  in  the  fights 
of  gladiators  and  wild  beasts,  yet,  considered  in  con- 
nection with  certain  other  popular  sports,  such  as 
cock-fighting,  must  be  taken  as  a  sign  that  even 
the  high  degree  of  culture,  which  the  Athenians  had 
undoubtedly  attained  by  the  fifth  century,  was  not 
quite  sufficient  to  suppress  completely  the  animal 
instinct  in  man.  After  all,  our  much-lauded  nineteenth 
century  is  not  unacquainted  with  such  amusements  as 
boxing,  pigeon-shooting,  and  similar  sports. 

Boxing,  like  wrestling,  was  subject  to  special  rules, 
from  which  we  see  that  more  stress  was  laid  on  artistic 
and  elegant  methods  than  on  the  mere  evidence  of 
great  bodily  strength  and  rude  force.  Specially  skilful 
boxers,  indeed,  devoted  themselves  chiefly  to  wearing 
out  their  enemy  by  keeping  strictly  on  the  defensive — 
that  is,  parrying  all  his  blows  with  their  arms,  and  thus 
forcing  him  at  last  to  give  up  the  contest,  rather  than 
making  him  unfit  to  fight  by  well-aimed  blows.  They 
distinguished,  too,  in  the  defensive  between  correctly- 
aimed  blows  and  mere  rough  hitting,  which  sometimes 
gave  a  combatant  the  victory  if  he  happened  to  possess 
considerable  strength,  but  by  no  means  won  reputation 
for  him.  All  the  same,  severe  bodily  injuries,  or,  at 
any  rate,  lasting  deformities,  especially  in  the  head  and 


GYMNASTICS.  293 

face,  were  inevitably  connected  with  boxing,  and  it  was 
by  no  means  unusual  for  boxers  to  have  their  ears 
completely  disfigured  and  beaten  quite  flat,  and, 
indeed,  we  see  this  on  some  of  the  ancient  heads ; 
afterwards  it  became  customary  to  use  special  bandages 
for  protecting  the  ears.  A  practice  which  made  boxing 
especially  rough,  and  sometimes  even  dangerous  to  life, 
was  that  of  covering  the  hands  with  leathern  thongs. 
Originally  these  thongs  were  tolerably  harmless ;  they 
consisted  merely  of  leather,  and  were  put  on  hi  such  a 
way  that  the  fingers  remained  free,  while  the  thongs 
extended  a  little  way  above  the  wrist  and  covered  part 
of  the  lower  arm — of  course,  in  such  a  way  as  not  to 
check  the  motion  of  the  hand.  But  this  gentler  kind, 
which  were  still  capable  of  inflicting  rather  serious 
injuries,  were  afterwards  in  use  only  for  the  preliminary 
practice  before  a  serious  contest ;  for  the  latter  they 
used  heavy  boxing-gloves  of  hardened  buU's  hide,  into 
which  knobs  of  lead,  etc.,  were  worked.  We  can  easily 
imagine  what  terrible  wounds  might  be  inflicted  by  a 
blow  from  one  of  these.  Many  of  the  old  athletes 
could  show  bodies  covered  with  wounds  like  that  of  an 
old  soldier,  and  the  writers  of  epigrams  laughingly 
compared  the  bodies  of  athletes  to  sieves  full  of  holes. 
And  although  they  were  forbidden  purposely  to  give 
blows  which  threatened  the  life  of  an  opponent,  yet 
it  sometimes  happened,  as  in  the  notorious  contest 
between  Creugas  and  Damoxenus,  that  in  the  excite- 
ment of  the  moment  the  combatants  forgot  the 
established  rules,  and  the  professional  contest  turned 
into  mere  brutality,  from  which  those  of  the  spectators 
whose  feelings  were  of  a  less  coarse  nature  turned  away 
with  horror. 

For  the  contest  they  generally  took  their  position 
in  such  a  manner  as  not  to  turn  their  whole  body  to 


294  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

the  enemy,  but  only  one  side,  and,  as  a  rule,  the  left 
It  was  in  the  nature  of  the  contest  that  a  constant 
change  between  attack  and  defence  must  take  place ; 
the  attitude  represented  on  numerous  monuments,  in 
which  the  left  arm  is  used  for  parrying,  the  right  for 

attack,  was 
the  common 
one,  not  only 
as  an  open- 
ing, but  re- 
peated at 
each  new 
p  h  a  s  e  , 
though  a 
change 
would  some- 
times take 
place,  and 
the  right 
arm  be  used 
in  defence, 
the  left  for 
attack.  On 
the  vase 
painting  re- 
presented in 
Fig.  132 
we  see  two 
boxers, 

vvhose  huge  proportions  show  that  they  were  endowed 
with  unusual  strength ;  both  have  covered  their  arms 
and  hands  with  heavy  thongs,  one  is  apparently 
countering  with  the  left,  the  other  parrying  with  the 
right ;  his  left  aims  at  his  enemy's  head.  On  the  right 
stands  a  winged  Goddess  of  Victory,  on  the  left  a 


GYMNASTICS. 


295 


boxer  with  the  thongs,  raising  his  left  arm  to  his  head. 
The  vase  painting,  Fig.  133,  represents  two  boxers,  one 
of  whom  aims  a  well-directed  blow  with  his  left  at  the 
breast  of  the  other,  who  totters.  On  one  side  lie  some 
poles,  as  well  as  implements  belonging  to  the  wrestling 


school,  strigil,  sponge,  etc.  There  are  also  two  boxers 
on  the  vase  painting  represented  in  Fig.  127.  The  one 
to  the  right  has  "  got  home  "  so  effectively  on  the  head 
with  his  left,  that  the  other,  who  has  tried  to  guard 
with  his  left  arm,  has  to  give  ground,  and  seems  to  have 
had  enough,  for  he  is  raising  the  first  finger  of  his  right 


296  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

hand,  a  sign  that  he  begs  for  mercy  and  declares  him- 
self conquered.  The  thongs  here  are  only  worn  on  the 
right  hand  of  one  of  the  combatants,  but  this  was  prob- 
ably merely  an  omission  on  the  part  of  the  painter. 

As  preliminary  practice  in  boxing,  especially 
in  learning  the  commonest  attacks  and  parries,  they 
used  a  kind  of  quintain  (xatpvicos),  a  bladder  or  leather 
ball,  hung  up  and  filled  with  sand ;  this  exercise  is 
often  represented  on  old  monuments,  and  most  clearly 
on  the  so-called  "  Ficoronese  Cista."  This  striking,  at 
the  quintain  was  one  of  the  regular  contests  in  the 
gymnasium,  for  though  the  dangerous  fighting  with 
the  leaded  thongs  was  left  to  professional  athletes,  yet 
a  trial  of  skill  in  the  commoner  kind  of  harmless  box- 
ing, in  which  there  was  no  risk  of  losing  teeth,  etc., 
was  a  very  favourite  practice,  and  this,  no  doubt,  is 
meant  when  we  find  boxing  mentioned  even  among 
the  gymnastic  exercises  of  boys. 

Similar  was  the  Pancration,  as  difficult  as  it  was 
dangerous,  which  was  unknown  to  the  heroic  age,  a 
combination  of  boxing  and  wrestling,  which,  though 
included  among  the  exercises  of  the  boys  and  youths, 
was  only  of  real  importance  for  professional  athletes. 
Here  all  the  parts  of  the  body  came  into  play,  tricks 
and  cunning  feints  to  lead  an  opponent  astray  were 
permissible,  and  as  important  as  bodily  strength  and 
powerful  fists.  The  combatants  fought  naked,  like 
the  wrestlers,  after  oiling  and  strewing  dust  over 
their  bodies  ;  but  they  did  not  use  thongs,  which 
would  have  been  in  the  way  in  wrestling,  nor  were 
they  permitted  to  strike  with  the  whole  fist,  but 
only  with  the  bent  fingers.  They  began  the  fight 
standing,  as  in  wrestling,  and  the  special  difficulty 
was,  in  taking  the  offensive,  to  avoid  be'incf  seized 
by  an  opponent  as  well  as  to  parry  an  unexpected 


GYMNASTICS.  297 

blow  from  his  fist.  Blows  were  dealt  not  only  in  the 
standing  fight,  but  also  in  the  ground  wrestling,  and 
in  the  pancration  they  made  even  more  use  of  their 
feet  for  hitting  and  kicking  than  in  the  separate  con- 
tests in  wrestling  and  boxing ;  they  also  tried  to  twist 
their  opponent's  hands  and  break  his  fingers,  since 
the  main  object  was  to  make  him  incapable  of  fight- 
ing. It  is,  therefore,  natural  that  among  professional 
athletes  the  pancration  was  regarded  as  the  most 
important  of  all  modes  of  fighting. 

Another  contest,  the  Pentathlon,  was  of  a  very 
different  nature.  In  the  pancration  the  two  modes 
of  wrestling  and  boxing  were  combined  together,  but 
in  the  pentathlon  the  different  contests  were  under- 
taken one  after  another  by  a  number  of  competitors, 
and  he  who  did  well  in  all  of  them,  and  took  the  first 
place  in  some,  was  declared  victor  in  the  whole. 
The  contest  consisted  in  jumping,  running,  throwing 
the  quoit,  throwing  the  spear,  and  wrestling.  Although 
the  combination  of  these  five  contests  was  arranged 
with  a  view  to  the  public  games,  yet  it  also  had  some 
educational  importance  ;  for  difficult  and  easy  contests 
were  here  combined,  both  those  which  required  skill 
as  well  as  those  in  which  mere  bodily  strength 
carried  off  the  palm,  and  thus  the  pentathlon  was  well 
calculated  to  develop  the  whole  body  harmoniously, 
and  to  keep  professionals  from  devoting  too  much 
attention  to  one  side  of  gymnasiics  to  the  disad- 
vantage of  the  others.  For  this  reason  it  was 
introduced  among  the  exercises  of  the  boys.  We 
have  no  conclusive  information  about  the  proceedings 
in  the  pentathlon,  the  order  in  which  the  various 
contests  followed  one  another,  and  the  conditions  on 
which  a  combatant  was  declared  to  be  victorious. 
There  is  a  good  deal  of  difference  of  opinion  among  the 


295  GREEK    LIFE   AT   HOME. 

moderns  who  have  ventured  hypotheses  on  the  subject. 
One  great  difficulty  in  deciding  this  question  arises 
from  the  fact  that,  though  a  considerable  number  of 
combatants  might  take  part  in  the  four  first-mentioned 
contests,  wrestling  must  in  the  nature  of  things  be  per- 
formed by  only  two  ;  we  must  therefore  assume  that 
the  contests  were  arranged  in  such  a  manner  that  only 
two  combatants  should  be  left  for  the  last.  Probably 
they  began  with  running,  for  which  a  considerable 
number  could  enter;  supposing  there  were  very 
many,  they  may  have  had  several  series  of  com- 
bats afterwards.  The  five  best  runners  would  then 
enter  upon  the  second  contest,  perhaps  throwing 
the  spear;  then  the  worst  of  these  five  would  be 
thrown  out,  and  the  remaining  four  enter  for  the 
next,  the  jump ;  the  three  best  jumpers  would  then 
throw  the  quoit,  and  the  two  best  quoit-throwers 
would  wrestle  finally  for  the  palm.  Whether  this  or 
something  similar  was  the  arrangement,  it  might  happen 
that  a  combatant  who  had  never  taken  the  first  place 
in  one  of  the  first  four  contests  might  carry  off  the 
victory  at  last,  but  they  avoided  this  by  the  rule  that, 
if  anyone  took  the  first  place  in  the  first  three  contests 
or  in  three  of  the  four,  the  two  last  or  the  last  might 
be  left  out,  and  he  would  be  considered  victor  in  the 
pentathlon.  Consequently,  the  final  wrestling  match 
only  took  place  if  after  the  fourth  contest  the  victory 
was  stall  undecided— that  is,  if  among  the  two  best 
quoit-throwers  neither  had  taken  the  first  place  three 
times.  It  might,  therefore,  happen  that  a  man  who 
took  the  first  place  twice  and  the  second  place  once 
in  the  first  three  contests  was  thrown  out  in  the 
fourth,  and  the  victory  fell  to  another  who  had  never 
taken  the  first  place  except  at  the  last  Still,  this 
apparent  injustice  was  counterbalanced  by  the  fact 


GYMNASTICS.  299 

that  the  last  contest  was  really  the  most  difficult,  while 
a  certain  average  excellence  in  the  former  contests  was 
required  of  everyone  who  entered  the  pentathlon  at 
all ;  also  it  was  no  small  merit  to  keep  a  place  among 
the  victors  in  all  live  contests,  though  it  might  not 
be  the  first  or  second.  Of  course  these  are  merely 
hypotheses;  we  have  not  sufficient  materials  for 
attaining  certainty  in  this  matter. 

A  number  of  other  gymnastic  exercises  were  of 
greater  importance  for  the  gymnasium  than  for  the 
public  games.  Among  those  Avhich  were  merely  pre- 
liminary training  for  more  serious  tasks  we  have 
already  mentioned  the  dumb-bells  and  the  quintain. 
Others  bear  some  resemblance  to  our  own  gymnastics  ; 
thus,  for  instance,  exercises  in  bending  the  knees, 
which  were  especially  popular  at  Sparta,  and  also 
practised  by  girls  there ;  thrusting  the  arms  for- 
ward and  backward  whilst  standing  on  tiptoe, 
hopping  on  one  foot,  or  changing  the  foot,  etc.  Ball 
was  also  included  among  the  games  of  a  semi-gymnastic 
character,  as  with  us,  too,  it  plays  some  part  in 
gymnastic  exercises ;  rope-pulling  was  also  a  favourite 
practice,  but  throughout  the  whole  of  antiquity  far 
the  most  popular  recreative  game  in  the  gymnastic 
schools  was  ball-playing,  and  there  were  special 
places  devoted  to  it,  just  as  there  were  after- 
wards hi  the  baths  or  thermae.  The  ancient  writers 
mention  several  other  occupations  of  this  kind,  half- 
way between  serious  exercises  and  mere  games ;  un- 
doubtedly there  were  many  others  concerning  which 
we  have  no  information,  and  the  relief  in  Fig.  134 
probably  shows  us  one  of  these.  It  seems  to  repre- 
sent a  game  with  a  large  hard  ball,  which  was 
thrown  up  into  the  air  and  caught  on  the  thigh,  and 
perhaps,  thrown  up  again  into  the  air  from  there. 


300  GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 

Many  exercises  of  a  partly  military  character  were 
also  practised  in  the  gymnasia.  Bosides  throwing 
the  spear,  which  was  regarded  as  an  entirely  gym- 
nastic exercise,  and  was  practised  at  the  public  con- 
tests, there  was  archery,  which,  in  the  Alexandrine 
age,  as  we  previously  mentioned,  even  found  a  place 
in  the  curriculum  of  the  Attic;  youths.  This  was 
also  the  case  with  the  Cretans,  who  were  renowned  as 


Fio.  134. 


excellent  archers  at  the  time  of  Plato,  and  probably 
even  earlier.  They  used  for  the  purpose  a  bow  con- 
structed of  horn  or  hard  wood ;  bows  were  of  two 
different  shapes,  one  which  was  common  in  the  East, 
and  was  already  described  by  Homer,  in  which  two 
horn-shaped  ends  were  connected  by  a  straight 
middle  piece ;  the  other  was  a  simpler  shape,  in 
which  the  whole  bow  consisted  of  one  piece  of  elastic 
wood,  scarcely  curved  at  ah1  when  the  bow  was  not 
bent,  and  which,  when  bent,  acquired  a  semicircular 
shape.  As  a  rule,  when  the  bow  was  not  hi  use  the 
string  was  only  fastened  at  one  end  Before  shooting, 


GYMNASTICS.  301 

it  was  attached  to  the  hook  at  the  other  end  by 
means  of  a  little  ring  or  eye.  A  good  deal  of  strength 
was  needed  to  bend  the  bow  far  enough  to  attach 
the  string.  In  shooting,  they  drew  back  the  feathered 
arrow,  on  which  a  notch  fitted,  along  with  the  string 
towards  the  breast,  holding  the  bow  firmly  in  the  left 
hand.  The  vase  painting  depicted  in  Fig.  135  repre- 
sents archery  practice.  The  target  here  is  the  wooden 
figure  of  a  cock  set  upon  a  column;  of  the  three 


FIG.  135. 


youths  who  are  practising  one  shoots  standing,  the 
second  kneeling,  the  common  position  for  an  archer, 
and  the  third  is  just  about  to  draw  his  bow  press- 
ing his  knee  against  it  All  three  use  the  second 
kind  of  bow.  It  is,  of  course,  only  an  artistic  licence 
that  the  archers  are  placed  so  near  their  goal;  similarly 
the  arrows  are  still  flying  while  the  two  archers  are 
about  to  shoot  fresh  ones. 

We  have  already  had  occasion  several  times  to 
point  to  the  difference  between  the  gymnastic  train- 
ing of  youths,  continued  into  manhood  with  a  view  to 
strengthening  the  body,  and  the  professional  gym- 
nastics of  the  athletes  ;  we  must,  therefore,  say  a  few 


802  GREEK  LIFE   AT   HOME. 

words  about  the  position  as  well  as  the  training  of 
the  latter.  As  the  public  games  increased  in  import- 
ance, and  the  glory  gained  by  the  victors  induced 
ambitious  youths  and  men  to  strive  for  a  wreath  in 
the  gymnastic  contests,  and  thus  gain  undying 
fame  for  themselves  and  their  native  city,  it  gradually 
became  the  custom  for  especially  strong  and  skilful 
athletes  (arf&vurrcU)  to  make  the  development  of  their 
body  for  these  gymnastic  contests  the  object  of  their 
life,  in  order,  by  constant  practice,  by  a  particular  diet 
and  mode  of  life  calculated  to  increase  their  strength, 
to  attain  the  highest  position  in  this  profession,  and 
thus  to  be  almost  sure  of  victory.  In  this  way 
"  agonistics,"  which  was  originally  only  a  development 
of  gymnastics  in  accordance  with  the  rules  of  art, 
became  a  regular  profession,  and  those  who  devoted 
themselves  to  it  were  distinctively  known  as  athletes. 
As  athleticism  became  a  profession  and  a  means  of 
making  money,  it  ceased,  of  course,  to  be  an  occupa- 
tion worthy  of  a  free  and  noble  citizen ;  and  it  is, 
therefore,  natural  that  at  Sparta,  where  every  pro- 
fession by  which  money  could  be  made  was  looked 
down  upon,  it  should  have  made  no  way,  and  that  in 
other  places,  too,  it  was  only  men  of  the  lower  classes 
who  devoted  themselves  to  it,  however  enticing  it 
might  seem  to  an  ambitious  youth  who  desired  to 
attain  the  material  advantages  enjoyed  by  the  victors 
in  these  contests,  as  well  as  the  glorious  honours  with 
which  they  were  specially  distinguished. 

The  athletes  received  their  training  from  a  trainer 
(jv/jLvcurrn^),  who  must  be  carefully  distinguished  from 
the  gymnastic  teacher  of  the  boys  (TrortSoTpt/S???).  The 
trainer  instructed  his  pupils  in  the  higher  branches  of 
gymnastics,  practised  frequently  with  them,  and  prob- 
ably also  accompanied  them  to  the  public  games,  in 


GYMNASTICS.  303 

order  to  instruct  them  to  the  very  last  moment,  since 
the  victory  of  a  pupil  was  also  honourable  and  advan- 
tageous to  the  master.  The  exercises  probably  took 
place  in  the  gymnasia  belonging  to  the  trainers,  or  on 
the  public  gymnastic  places;  and  consisted  not  merely 
in  a  methodical  increase  in  the  usual  gymnastic 
exercises  until  the  highest  achievements  were 
attained,  but  also  in  many  which  were  not  practised 
elsewhere,  and  which  were  not  calculated  to  harden 
the  body  or  make  the  limbs  supple.  Along  with  the 
gymnastic  training  they  observed,  as  already  men- 
tioned, a  very  careful  mode  of  life,  which  was  superin- 
tended by  the  rubber,  whose  half-medical  training  has 
been  already  alluded  to.  This  diet  was  in  part 
observed  at  all  times,  but  was  especially  severe  just 
before  the  games,  at  which  an  athlete  had  to  appear. 
In  ancient  times  the  principal  nourishment  of  the 
athletes  was  fresh  cheese,  dried  figs,  and  wheaten 
porridge;  in  later  times  they  abandoned  this  vegeta- 
rian diet  for  meat,  and  gave  the  preference  to  beef, 
pork,  and  kid.  Bread  might  not  be  eaten  with  meat, 
but  was  taken  at  breakfast,  while  the  principal  meal 
consisted  of  meat ;  confectionery  was  forbidden  ;  wine 
might  only  be  taken  in  moderate  quantities.  In 
addition  to  this  diet,  which  was  prescribed  to  the 
athletes  for  the  whole  year,  a  special  training  had  to 
be  followed  at  times,  especially  when  preparing  for 
the  games,  which  lasted  for  more  than  three-quarters 
of  the  vear;  at  these  times  the  athletes  every  day, 
after  the  conclusion  of  their  practice,  had  to  consume 
an  enormous  quantity  of  such  food  as  was  permitted 
them,  and  then  digest  it  in  a  long-continued  sleep. 
By  gradually  increasing  the  amount,  an  athlete  suc- 
ceeded at  last  in  consuming  an  enormous  quantity  of 
meat,  and  at  length  this  became  a  habit  and  even  a 


304  GREEK  LIFE   AT  HOSfE. 

necessity.  By  this  means  they  attained,  not,  it  is 
true,  hardening  of  the  muscles,  but  the  corpulence 
which  is  often  represented  in  the  ancient  pictures, 
and  which  might  be  advantageous  in  certain  contests, 
especially  in  wrestling  and  the  pancration,  since  it 
enabled  them  more  easily  to  press  down  and  wear 
out  their  opponents;  on  the  other  hand,  this  arti- 
ficially-produced corpulence  was  very  unhealthy,  and 
it  is  natural  that  these  athletes  were  liable  to  many 
kinds  of  disease,  especially  apoplectic  strokes. 

The  training  and  mode  of  life  of  the  athletes  just 
described  was  obviously  not  suitable  for  all  kinds  of 
gymnastic  contests.  Such  diet  would  have  been  very 
pernicious  for  running  and  jumping ;  wrestling  and 
boxing  and  the  pancration  were  their  chief  domain, 
and  it  was  in  these  that  the  more  celebrated  athletes 
of  antiquity,  whose  names  have  come  down  to  us— 
viz.,  Milo,  Polydamas,  Glaucus,  and  the  rest — were 
-pecially  distinguished.  Their  rewards  were  of  various 
kinds.  The  victors  in  the  Olympic  games  were 
allowed  to  set  up  a  statue  in  the  Grove  of  Altis,  at 
Olympia,  at  their  own  expense  or  that  of  their 
relations,  sometimes  even  of  the  state  to  which  the 
victor  belonged ;  and  at  home,  too,  they  very  fre- 
quently had  the  same  honour  of  a  public  statue 
assigned  to  them.  When  they  returned  from  the 
games,  they  held  a  solemn  entry  into  their  own 
town,  dressed  in  purple,  riding  on  a  car  drawn  by 
four  white  horses,  accompanied  by  their  friends  and 
relations  and  a  rejoicing  crowd;  it  was  even  an 
ancient  custom  to  pull  down  a  piece  of  the  city  wall, 
in  order  to  show  that  a  city  which  could  produce 
such  citizens  required  no  walls  for  its  defence. 
Then  followed  a  banquet  in  honour  of  the  victor,  in 
which  hymns  were  sung  in  his  praise,  Rewards  were 


GYMNASTICS.  305 

also  given  in  coin.  At  Athens,  after  the  time  of  Solon, 
the  victor  in  the  Olympic  games  received  500 
drachmae,  the  victor  in  one  of  the  three  other  great 
national  contests  a  hundred  drachmae ;  in  later  times 
they  even  had  the  right  of  dining  every  day  at  the 
public  expense  in  the  town-hall  (Trpvravelov),  and  they 
also  enjoyed  the  honour  of  sitting  on  the  front  benches 
of  the  theatre  (irpoeopia).  Moreover,  most  of  the  pro- 
fessional athletes,  if  they  lived  carefully  and  abstained 
from  all  departures  from  their  customary  diet  and 
mode  of  life,  were  able  to  continue  their  contests  for 
a  good  many  years,  sometimes  thirty  or  more,  and 
were  thus  able  to  pile  honour  on  honour  and  reward 
on  reward.  The  unlimited  admiration  which  the 
mass  of  the  people,  and  especially  the  youth,  who 
were  easily  won  by  exhibitions  of  strength,  gave  to 
these  combatants,  who  seem  to  us  at  the  present  day 
to  have  been  but  rough  prize-fighters,  stands  in  strong 
contrast  to  the  judgment  pronounced  on  them  by  men 
of  real  intellectual  development,  especially  by  the 
philosophers.  They  rightly  complained  that  this  one- 
sided development  of  the  body  was  perfectly  useless  to 
the  State,  since  the  athletes  were  only  capable  in  their 
own  domain,  but  were  quite  unable  to  endure  fatigues 
and  undertake  military  service ;  they  pointed  out  that 
the  mode  of  life  which  aimed  merely  at  increasing  the 
bodily  strength  tended  to  dwarf  the  intellect,  and 
that,  therefore,  the  athletes  were  absolutely  useless  for 
political  as  well  as  for  all  intellectual  purposes.  Wise 
educators,  therefore,  disapproved  of  athletic  training, 
and,  indeed,  the  greatest  warriors  and  statesmen  of 
Greece  seem  always  to  have  despised  it. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

MUSIC     AND     DANCING. 

Stringed  Instruments — The  Lyre — The  Cithara—  Wind  Instruments 
— The  Flute — Trumpets,  Tambourines,  and  other  Instruments 
— Dancing  as  a  Popular  Amusement — The  Dance  in  Religious 
Ceremonies. 

WE  do  not  intend  in  this  place  to  discuss  the  history 
and  theory  of  ancient  music,  but  only  to  supplement 
what  has  been  said  already  about  the  musical  instruc- 
tion of  youth,  by  indicating  the  most  important 
branches  of  music  which  were  studied  in  Greece  and 
describing  the  instruments  in  use.  We  shall  pass 
over  vocal  music  entirely,  since  it  played  no  great  part 
in  antiquity  apart  from  instrumental  accompaniment, 
and  its  chief  purpose  was  for  song  and  the  drama. 

The  commonest  instruments  in  ordinary  use 
were  stringed.  These  were  well  suited  for  solo- 
playing  as  well  as  for  accompanying  songs,  and  the 
singer  could  accompany  himself  with  them,  which 
would  have  been  impossible  in  the  case  of  wind  instru- 
ments. The  stringed  instruments  used  in  Greece  were 
all  played  by  striking  or  thrumming,  and  not  by  means 
of  a  bow ;  in  fact,  it  is  a  disputed  point  whether  the 
ancients,  and  in  particular  the  Egyptians,  were  at  all 
acquainted  with  the  bow ;  in  any  case  we  do  not  find 
it  in  classical  antiquity.  Among  the  various  kinds  of 
stringed  instruments  which  had  either  existed  in 
Greece  since  the  oldest  times  or  been  introduced  from 
foreign  countries,  especially  from  the  East  or  from 
Egypt,  there  were  only  two  which  were  of  special 


MUSIC   AND   DANCING.  807 

importance  for  educational  and  ordinary  purposes. 
These  were  the  lyre  and  the  cithara,  which  were  closely 
related  to  one  another,  and  only  distinguished  by 
the  effect  of  the  sound.  Of  these  the  simpler,  and 
probably  also  the  older,  was  the  lyre,  which,  according 
to  a  Greek  legend,  was  an  invention  of  Hermes,  who 
constructed  the  first  lyre  out  of  a  tortoise,  which  he 
used  as  a  sounding-board,  stretching  cords  across  it. 
Even  in  later  times  tortoise-shells  seem  to  have  been 
actually  used  in  the  construction  of  lyres,  and  on 
works  of  art,  especially  vase  pictures  (compare  the 
"Bowl  of  Duris,"  which  represents  school  teaching  in 
Attica,  Fig.  75),  we  can  plainly  distinguish  the  mark- 
ings of  the  tortoise  on  the  outer  side  of  the  instrument. 
It  must,  however,  have  been  more  usual  to  construct 
the  sounding-board  of  wood,  and  only  adorn  it  extern- 
ally with  tortoise-shell  or  other  decorative  materials ; 
the  writers  mention  boxwood  and  ilex  as  the  principal 
materials  for  lyres,  as  well  as  ivory,  which  last  was 
probably  used  for  decorative  purposes.  In  the 
Homeric  hymn  to  Hermes,  in  which  the  invention  ot 
the  lyre  by  the  god  is  described  in  detail,  Hermes  cuts 
little  stems  of  reed,  which  he  fastens  into  the  shell  in 
gridiron  fashion  and  covers  with  ox-skin,  and  by  this 
means  obtains  the  necessary  covering  for  the  sounding- 
board.  In  later  times  the  proceeding  was  probably 
different,  since  the  usual  material  for  the  sounding- 
board  was  undoubtedly  wood,  and  the  covering  was, 
no  doubt,  made  of  wood  also.  But  the  shape  of  the 
sounding-board  always  remained  the  same  ;  the  outer 
side  was  a  good  deal  raised,  while  the  inner  side  on 
which  the  strings  were  attached  was  a  level  surface. 
Into  this  sounding-board  two  arms  were  fixed,  which 
are  almost  always  represented  on  Greek  monuments 
as  merely  curved  pieces  of  wood  fastened  on  the  inner 


308  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

side  of  the  sounding-board  ;  but  the  custom  which  in 
later  times,  especially  in  the  Alexandrine  and  Roman 
periods,  became  very  common,  of  not  merely  con- 
structing these  arms  in  the  shape  of  horns,  but  even 
making  them  of  real  horns  of  chamois  or  gazelles, 
no  doubt  existed  even  in  the  ancient  Greek  period. 

At  their  upper  ends  the  two  arms,  which  might  be 
called  horns,  were  fastened  together  by  a  cross-piece, 
called  the  yoke,  which  was  usually  constructed  of  hard 
wood,  and  on  to  this  the  strings,  constructed  of  sheep- 
guts,  were  stretched.  Of  these  the  lyre  usually  had 
seven,  all  of  equal  length,  which  was  also  the  case 
in  the  cithara.  These  strings,  as  we  can  clearly  see 
in  the  lyres  of  the  above-mentioned  bowl  (Fig.  75), 
passed  downwards  over  a  bridge  consisting  of  a  piece 
of  reed  fixed  on  the  flat  covering  of  the  sounding- 
board,  and  were  then  fastened  singly,  probably  to  a 
little  square  board,  such  as  we  see  on  the  lyre  hanging 
on  the  wall  in  Fig.  75.  Probably  this  little  board 
could  be  taken  out,  and  thus,  if  a  string  were  to 
break,  the  injury  could  be  easily  repaired.  Occa- 
sionally the  strings  were  merely  tied  to  the  yoke ; 
but,  as  this  primitive  method  would  make  it  im- 
possible to  tune  them,  we  must  assume  that  there 
was  usually  some  other  contrivance,  though  neither 
writers  nor  monuments  give  us  sufficient  informa- 
tion about  it.  On  the  lyres  in  Fig.  75,  and  also  in 
other  pictures  of  stringed  instruments,  we  perceive  at 
the  upper  ends  of  the  strings,  longish  rolls  which 
in  other  places  are  shaped  more  like  rings  or  discs, 
and  are  probably  set  at  an  angle  to  the  stretched 
strings.  An  hypothesis  has  been  set  up  by  Von  Jan, 
who  .infers,  from  ancient  writers,  after  comparing 
similar  contrivances  in  Nubian  stringed  instruments, 
that  these  rolls  were  constructed  of  thick  skin  or 


MUSIC   AND   DANCING.  309 

hide,  taken  from  the  backs  of  oxen  or  sheep;  the 
strings  were  fastened  into  these  adhesive  covers  and 
twisted  along  with  them  round  the  yoke  of  the  lyre 
until  they  attained  the  right  tune,  and  they  were  then 
fastened  into  their  proper  position  by  strongly  press- 
ing down  these  rolls  of  hide.  Still,  this  rough  mode 
of  fastening  which  could  only  permit  of  very  super- 
ficial tuning  of  the  strings,  does  not  appear  very 
satisfactory ;  indeed,  Von  Jan  himself  calls  attention 
to  a  far  more  artistic  contrivance  observed  in  some 
of  the  pictures,  which  has  not  yet,  however,  been 
satisfactorily  explained.  There  seems  also  to  have 
been  a  third  mode  of  fastening ;  sometimes  the  whole 
yoke  was  divided  into  as  many  little  pulleys  con- 
nected by  pegs  as  there  were  strings,  so  that  each 
string  had,  as  it  were,  its  own  yoke,  by  the  tightening 
of  which  it  could  be  tuned  without  the  other  strings 
being  affected.  We  have  no  further  details  about 
this  construction. 

On  the  vase  painting  represented  in  Fig.  136, 
which  presents  a  number  of  women  with  musical  in- 
struments, perhaps  Muses,  one  is  leaning  back  comfort- 
ably in  her  easy-chair,  and  playing  on  the  lyre,  here 
represented  with  six  strings ;  the  woman  standing  in 
front  of  her  seems  about  to  tune  the  strings  of  her 
cithara.  The  cithara  differed  from  the  lyre  chiefly  in 
the  form  and  structure  of  the  sounding-board.  This 
was  constructed  of  wood,  often  artistically  decorated 
and  adorned  with  valuable  materials,  precious  stones, 
etc.,  and  was  much  larger  and  more  arched-  than  the 
sounding-board  of  the  lyre.  It  usually  had  a  straight 
base,  and  sometimes  sounding  holes,  which  was  less 
often  the  case  with  the  lyre,  and  its  arms  were  far 
wider  and  squarer,  and,  being  also  hollow,  seern  to 
have  helped  to  strengthen  the  sound.  On  some 


310 


GREEK    LIFE    AT    HOME. 


instruments  it  is  clear 
that  the  sounding- 
board  and  the  arms, 
which  rise  out  of  it 
were  constructed  out 
of  a  single  piece,  and 
that,  consequently, 
the  cavities  are  in 
connection ;  on  some 
the  arms  are  of  a  dif- 
ferent colour  from  the 
sounding-board, 
usually  white,  which 
would  suggest  ivory; 
still,  we  must  not  on 
this  account  conclude 
that  they  were  con- 
structed separately, 
since  it  is  possible 
that  the  different 
colouring  was  only  an 
external  ornamenta- 
tion or  veneer  for  the 
arms,  and  need  not 
lead  us  to  assume  a 
different  material  for 
the  whole  structure. 
The  arms  were  usually 
slightly  curved  out- 
wards, but  turned  in- 
wards again  at  the 
top.  The  instrument 
in  Fig.  136  is  one  of 
the  simplest,  since  the 
arms  are  quite  plain  ; 


MUSIC  AND   DANCING.  311 

on  other  examples  we  often  see  elaborate  carving 
The  bridge  which  unrtes  the  two  arms  is  either  a 
perfectly  simple  rod,  as  in  the  case  of  the  lyre  (com- 
pare Fig.  136),  or  else  the  arms  have  at  their  pro- 
jecting ends  solid  handles  or  crooks,  which  probably 
assisted  the  tuning.  The  number  of  strings  was 
originally  limited  in  the  cithara;  seven  was  at  first 
the  usual  number,  and  ihis  number  was  even  fixed 
by  law  at  Sparta,  but  in  other  places  nine,  ten,  or 
eleven  strings  were  used.  The  writers  and  pictures 
give  us  no  more  accurate  information  about  the  mode 
in  which  these  strings  were  fastened  to  the  yoke  and 
to  the  sounding-board  than  they  do  about  the  lyre ; 
the  pictures  dating  from  the  Roman  period  are  much 
clearer  in  that  respect,  but  we  cannot  safely  use  them 
as  authorities. 

The  lyre  was  generally  played  sitting.  This  in% 
strument,  which  was  a  light  one,  was  held  close  to  the 
left  side,  as  we  see  in  Figs.  75  and  136,  and  supported 
by  the  seat  of  the  chair.  The  cithara  was  played 
standing,  and  it  was  therefore  necessary,  on  account  of 
the  considerable  weight  of  the  instrument,  to  suspend 
it  by  a  band  over  the  shoulders.  This  band  is  seldom 
represented  in  works  of  art,  but  it  must  always  be 
assumed  to  be  there,  since  the  mode  in  which  the 
stringed  instruments  .were  played  would  not  leave  a 
hand  free  for  holding  it.  Both  lyre  and  cithara  were 
played  in  such  a  manner  that  the  strings  were 
thrummed  from  without  by  the  left  hand,  but  struck 
from  within  by  an  instrument  called  plectrum,  held 
in  the  right  hand,  and  constructed  of  wood,  ivory,  or 
some  half- precious  stone.  This  plectrum  was  fastened 
by  a  string  to  the  instrument  (compare  again  Fig.  75). 
There  were,  however,  exceptions  to  this  mode  of  play- 
ing ;  thus,  a  woman  in  Fig.  136  apparently  does  not 


312  GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 

use  the  plectrum,  but  thrums  the  strings  of  the  lyre 
with  both  hands,  and  at  other  times  it  seems  as  though 
the  left  hand  and  the  plectrum,  which  was  held  in  the 
right,  were  not  used  at  the  same  time,  but  in  turns. 
Thus,  hi  Fig.  75,  both  teacher  and  pupil  are  only 
thrumming  the  instrument  with  their  left  hand,  and 
leaving  the  plectrum  at  rest.  The  practical  object  oi 
fastening  the  plectrum  to  the  instrument  was  that  it 
enabled  the  player  at  any  moment  to  pass  from  the 
use  of  the  plectrum  to  the  fingers  of  the  right  hand, 
and  vice  versa.  An  hypothesis  based  on  works  of  art, 
and  apparently  very  plausible,  has  been  made  by  Von 
Jan,  who  supposes  that  musicians,  as  a  rule,  accom- 
panied their  song  with  the  play  of  the  left  hand,  and 
only  used  the  plectrum  in  the  pauses. 

Besides  the  lyres  and  citharae,  among  which  we 
.must  certainly  include"  the  Homeric  Phorminx,  of 
which  we  find  various  kinds  but  all  with  the  same 
main  features,  there  are  several  other  stringed  instru- 
ments, to  which  we  can,  as  a  rule,  assign  the  ancient 
names  with  some  certainty,  though  we  find  a  very 
great  number  of  designations  for  these  instruments  in 
different  writers,  and  apparently  most  of  them  were 
introduced  into  Greece  from  the  East  and  from 
Egypt.  One  of  the  safest  identifications  relates  to  a 
large,  many-stringed  instrument,  of  a  shape  which 
closely  resembles  our  modern  harp  (Fig.  136).  This  is 
played  by  the  third  woman  in  the  centre,  and  is  also 
found  elsewhere  (compare  the  vase  painting,  Fig.  137). 
We  almost  always  find  this  instrument  in  the  hands 
of  women  ;  they  play  it  seated,  resting  the  horizontal 
base  on  their  laps,  whilo  the  broader  sounding-board 
which  joins  this  at  an  angle,  rests  against  the  upper 
part  of  their  body  ;  they  strike  the  short  strings  near 
them  with  the  right  hand,  without  a  plectrum,  and 


MUSIC   AND   DANCING. 


313 


with  the  left  hand  the  long  strings  which  are  further 
from  them.  The  pictures  sometimes  show  contriv- 
ances for  tuning,  shortening, or  lengthening  the  strings; 


FIG.  137. 


the  number  of  strings  varies.  As  the  shape  is  usually 
triangular,  we  may  probably  assume  that  this  instru- 
ment is  the  one  called  Trigonon.  Possibly  some  of 
the  examples  may  be  instances  of  the  Sambuca,  since 
this,  too,  had  a  triangular  form. 

"We  also  hear  of  many  other  stringed  instruments, 
of  which  we  know    only  the  names,  some   with  a 


314  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

small  number  of  strings — three  or  four,  others  with 
a    large    number — thirty    to    forty ;    but    we    know 

little  or  nothing  about 
their  shape,  and,  there- 
fore,   will   not    enter 
into  details  concern- 
ing   them,   especially 
as  their  use  must  have 
been  very  rare  as  com- 
pared with  that  of  the 
instruments     already 
described.     We  must 
just  mention  the  Bar- 
biton,  since  it  seems 
probable    that    an    instrument 
which    appears   very    often    on 
ancient   monuments,   very  nar- 
row and  long,  with  a  sounding- 
board    closely    resembling     the 
lyre,  but   smaller,   and  with   a 
very    few     strings,    which    was 
played  with  the  hand  and  the 
plectrum,  may    have   been   the 
barbiton  which  was  popular  at 
festive  gatherings,  and   for  ac- 
companying love-songs. 

Among  wind  instruments  we 
must,  hi  the  first  instance,  con- 
sider the  flute.     Although  for  a 
time  this  was   not  popular  in 
the  most  fashionable  circles  at 
Athens,  still  it  was  much  in  use 
in  Boeotia,  and  also  in  the  rest 
of  Greece,  even  among  amateurs,  and  at  all  times 
was   of   great    importance,    especially    for    choruses 


FIG.  138. 


MUSIC   AND  DANCING.  315 

and  festive  performances,  for  entertainments  during 
meals,  dancing,  and  other  such  occasions.     The  form 
of     this     instrument 
which  is   commonest 
on  the  monuments  is 
the  double  flute.    The 
•  ancient   flute   (auAos) 
differed  in  shape  and 
use  from   that  which 
bears    the    name    at 
the  present  day,  since 
the   players   did    not 
blow   into   it  at    the 
side,  but  made  use  of 
a    mouthpiece    like   that    of   a 
clarinet.  This  mouthpiece,  which 
was   usually  of   the   same   ma- 
terial as   the   flute   proper,  has 
an   easily  vibrating  tongue  cut 
in  its  upper  part,  which  vibrates 
within  the  mouth,  as  the  greater 
part  of  the  mouthpiece  is  taken- 
right  into   the   mouth    by   the 
player.     The   principal    part   of 
the    flute,   the    pipe,   which    is 
either    of    the    same    thickness 
throughout,   or    else   somewhat 
widened  at   the  lower  end,  was 
sometimes   formed   of  a  single 
piece  and  sometimes  of  several 
component  parts.    Various  notes 
were  produced  by  the  holes,  of 
which   there   were  at  first  only 
three  or  four,  but  afterwards  a  larger  number ;  there 
were  also  holes  at  the  side,  which  helped  to  increase 


FIG.  139. 


316  GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 

the  compass  of  the  flute,  and  various  other  helps, 
such  as  valves  on  the  side,  rings  which  yi  turning 
either  opened  or  closed  the  holes,  etc.  In  spite  of  the 
very  numerous  practical  attempts  instituted  during 
the  present  century  to  procure  some  notion  of  the 
mode  of  playing  and  the  effect  of  the  ancient  flute, 
it  does  not  seem  possible  to  obtain  any  proper 
conception  of  it. 

The  pipe  ,seems  never  to  have  been  used  singly  in 
Greece,  but  only  as  the  double  flute,  as  we  see  on  so 
many  representations,  and,  as  a  rule,  the  flutes  are 
both  of  equal  length.  In  order  to  facilitate  the  play- 
ing on  two  instruments  at  the  same  time  or  in  quick 
succession,  and  perhaps  also  to  prevent  the  escape  of 
air,  they  often,  though  not  always,  made  use  of  a 
cheek-piece  round  the  mouth.  The  bronze  statue  of  a 
flute  player,  of  which  both  sides  are  represented  in 
Figs.  138  and  139,  shows  very  plainly  the  mode  in 
which  this  bandage  was  fastened  by  two  leathern 
thongs  passed  round  the  head  ;  we  can  also  recognise 
it  in  the  flute  player  in  Fig.  140,  a  vase  painting 
which  undoubtedly,  as  the  pedestal  on  which  he 
stands  indicates,  represents  a  flute  player  at  a  public 
contest ;  this  is  also  suggested  by  his  curious  cos- 
tume— the  long  festive  robe  and  short  jacket  without 
sleeves. 

In  the  vase  painting  represented  in  Fig.  127,  the 
flute  player,  who  accompanies  the  gymnastic  'exer- 
cises, is  also  playing  the  double  flute  with  the  mouth 
bandage;  over  his  arm  hangs  the  flute  case,  which  was 
usually  made  of  skin,  and  with  which  the  case  for  the 
mouthpieces,  of  which  they  had  several,  was  con- 
nected. On  the  other  hand,  the  youth  in  Fig.  75 
has  no  bandage ;  nor  yet  the  two  women  in  Fig.  126, 
or  the  seated  hetaera  in  Fig.  142,  nor  the  youth  who, 


MUSIC   AND   DANCING. 


317 


FIG.   140. 


in  the  vase  painting  represented  in  Fig.  141,  with  a 
double  flute  in  his  hand,  mounts  the  pedestal  from 
which  he  intends  to  perform  to  the  audience  who  are 


MUSIC   AND  DANCING. 


319 

seated  close  by.  On  the  Greek  monuments  of  the  pre- 
Rornan  period  we  always  find  two  simiLir  flutes  con- 
nected together,  but  afterwards,  and  especially  in 


FIG.  142. 


pictures  connected  with  the  worship  of  Cybelo,  one  of 
the  flutes  very  often  has  a  curved  horn,  which  seems 
to  have  been  a  special  peculiarity  of  the  Phrygian 
flute.  This  was  apparently  not  known  to  the  Greeks 
in  ancient  times. 

The  other  wooden  wind   instruments   are  of  no 


320  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

special  importance  for  music  or  art.  The  Syrinx, 
or  pan-pipe,  constructed  of  a  number  of  reeds  fastened 
together,  which  in  one  kind  of  syrinx  were  all  of  equal 
length,  but  hi  others  varied  from  short  to  long,  was 
used  by  the  shepherds,  and  is  often  seen  in  pictures, 
especially  of  Pan  and  other  forest  and  field  divinities, 
but  played  no  part  in  actual  music.  Still  more  is 
this  the  case  with  the  Plagiaulos,  answering  to  the 
modern.  Fldte  traversiere,  which  originated  in  Egypt, 
and  with  various  other  kinds  of  single  flutes  which 
have  been  described  to  us. 

Metal  wind  instruments,  or  trumpets  (o-aX7rfy£), 
were  only  used  for  military  and  religious  purposes. 
They  were  usually  made  of  bronze,  with  a  bone  mouth- 
piece, were  of  a  longish  shape,  with  avery  broad  mouth. 
Among  other  musical  instruments  in  use  among  the 
Greeks  we  must  mention  tambourines  (rv^irava), 
cymbals,  and  castanets  (Kporaka),  which  were  used 
in  the  worship  of  Dionysus  and  Cybele,  and  in  dances 
of  an  orgiastic  character  ;  in  Fig.  142  a  girl,  dancing 
to  the  sound  of  a  flute,  holds  castanets  hi  her  hands. 
But,  in  spite  of  the  frequency  with  which  these 
instruments  are  represented  on  works  of  art,  especi- 
ally those  which  are  connected  with  Dionysus,  their 
use  in  daily  life  must  have  been  very  rare,  except 
for  the  dancing  girls  who  appeared  at  the  symposia, 
and  who  marked  the  time  of  their  motions  with  them. 

There  is  very  little  to  say  about  dancing  among 
the  Greeks;  in  spite  of  its  importance  in  religious 
observances  and  plays  or  choruses,  it  was  of  little 
account  in  daily  life.  We  do  not  find  it  mentioned 
among  the  usual  subjects  of  instruction,  except,  in- 
deed, at  Sparta.  Dancing  was  a  popular  amusement, 
especially  as  an  entertainment  during  banquets 
a  id  drinking  feasts  ;  but  the  guests  did  not  dance 


MUSIC   AND   DANCING.  321 

themselves,  but  contented  themselves  with  looking 
on  at  professional  performers.  Still,  no  doubt,  it, 
sometimes  happened  that  when  the  revellers  had 
drunk  a  good  deal  of  wine,  they  felt  inspired  to 
join  the  dance ;  there  were  certainly  opportunities 
for  learning  it,  since  we  are  expressly  told  that  Socrates 
took  lessons  hi  dancing  at  an  advanced  age.  It  is 
almost  always  solo  dancing  that  is  in  question;  this 
consisted  chiefly  in  rhythmic  movements  of  hands 
and  feet  in  a  variety  of  well-chosen  postures,  and  was 
essentially  connected  with  gymnastics,  hi  which  the 
training  in  dancing  was  sometimes  included.  Dancing 
together  by  people  of  different  sexes,  'such  as  is 
customary  with  us,  was  unknown  in  the  social  life  of 
antiquity,  and  would  in  any  case  have  been  impossible 
in  Greece,  owing  to  the  separation  which  existed  in 
ordinary  life  between  men  and  women. 

The  chief  use  of  the  dance  was  for  religious  purposes. 
In  the  most  ancient  times  solemn  dances  were  always  a 
part  of  worship;  merry  dances  were  part  of  the  service 
of  Dionysus ;  and  sometimes  both  sexes  took  part  in 
these  choric  dances,  but  even  here  there  was  no  ques- 
tion of  round  dancing,  but  only  of  a  series  of  move- 
ments regulated  by  music,  and  of  a  dignified  and 
rhythmical  character.  The  dances  in  armour  which 
were  popular  in  the  Doric  states,  and  were,  of  course, 
only  performed  by  men,  were  of  a  livelier  character. 
The  dancers  were  equipped  with  helmet,  shield,  and 
sword,  and  went  through  a  number  of  choregraphic 
evolutions ;  the  dances  at  country  festivals,  which  very 
often  had  a  pantomimic  character,  were  also  of  a  lively 
nature.  Here,  as  well  as  in  the  solemn  religious  dances, 
it  was  very  common  for  the  dancers  to  sing  as  they 
danced,  and  sometimes  even  accompany  themselves  on 
some  instrument ;  in  fact,  this  distinction  holds  good 
L 


322  GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 

between  dancing  in  ancient  and  in  modern  times,  that 
in  antiquity  it  was  not  an  object  in  itself,  but  was 
always  closely  connected  with  the  other  musical  arts. 
The  ancient  dance  attained  its  highest  development 
and  perfection  hi  the  drama,  where  dancing,  music, 
and  pantomime  were  most  perfectly  combined;  but 
we  shall  have  occasion  to  refer  to  this  later  on,  in 
discussing  the  theatre  of  the  Greeks. 


CHAPTER   X. 

RELIGIOUS      WORSHIP. 

Greek  Religion— The  Functions  of  the  Priest— Forms  of  Worship, 
Prayer,  and  Sacrifice— Purification — Holy  Water — Two  Forms 
of  Sacrifice,  Bloody  and  Bloodless — Libations— Prophecy  and 
Divinations — The  Oracles. 

IN  a  description  of  Greek  life  it  is  impossible  entirely 
to  pass  over  the  many  customs  connected  with  the 
worship  of  the  gods,  and  their  importance  in  the  life 
of  individuals.  Greek  religion  did  not  appoint  an}7 
fixed  ceremonies  to  be  observed  every  day,  as  the 
Jewish  or  Mahometan  religions  do;  but  still  it  placed  a 
believer  in  connection  with  the  Deity,  and  thus  gave 
occasion  for  some  religious  act  every  day.  There  were 
also  some  special  occasions  which  led  them  to  turn  to 
their  gods,  and  it  is,  therefore,  natural  that  religious 
worship  should  have  played  a  very  important  part  in 
the  life  of  the  Greeks,  especially  as  it  was  only  in  rare 
cases  that  they  required  to  resort  to  the  mediatory 
help  of  a  priest ;  as  a  rule,  any  Greek  might  perform 
the  various  religious  ceremonies  himself  It  is  a  dis- 
puted question  whether  Greek  natural  religion  in  its 
first  beginnings  was  acquainted  with  temples,  images 
of  the  gods,  and  priests  as  a  separate  class ;  in  any 
case,  in  the  oldest  literary  monument  of  Greek  life,  the 
Homeric  poems,  worship  was  chiefly  in  the  hands  of 
laymen,  and  service  in  the  temples  and  priesthood 
generally  played  a  very  subordinate  part  in  the  life  of 
mankind. 

Greek   religion  was    unacquainted  with    regular 


324  GREEK   LIFE  AT  HOME. 

worship  returning  on  certain  appointed  days,  for  which 
priests  and  laymen  assembled  together  in  the  House 
of  God.  It  is  true  the  temple  was  regarded  as  the 
dwelling  of  the  god;  but  the  believer,  as  a  rule,  only 
entered  it  if  he  had  some  special  prayer  to  make,  and 
otherwise  performed  his  religious  duties  at  home  in  his 
own  dwelling.  This  he  could  generally  do  without  the 
help  of  a  priest ;  the  priest  existed,  in  the  first  place, 
for  the  sake  of  the  god,  and  only  in  the  second  in 
order  to  facilitate  the  intercourse  between  god  and 
man.  The  gods  desired  worship  and  sacrifice,  and,  as 
it  could  not  be  left  to  chance  whether  some  one  person 
would  supply  these,  since  there  must  be  no  interrup- 
tion to  the  worship,  it  was  necessary  to  have  a  class 
of  men  whose  work  in  life,  was  the  performance  of 
these  duties  towards  the  divinity.  It  was  probably 
this  idea  which  led  them  to  appoint  a  priestly  class ; 
and  it  was  only  as  a  consequence  of  this  that  laymen 
sometimes  called  upon  the  help  of  the  priest,  especially 
in  important  cases,  since  these  men,  who  were  in  con- 
stant intercourse  with  the  gods,  were  assumed  to  have 
the  most  accurate  knowledge  of  the  forms  well-pleasing 
to  the  divinities.  Consequently,  as  the  development 
of  civilisation  made  greater  claims  on  ordinary  people 
in  their  professional  activity,  such  as  military  service: 
politics,  studies,  etc.,  and  thus  drew  them  away  from 
divine  things,  it  became  commoner  to  make  use  of 
the  mediatory  assistance  of  the  priest,  and  thus  the 
influence  and  importance  of  the  priestly  class  con- 
tinued to  increase.  There  was  another  reason  which 
led  the  laymen  to  make  use  of  the  priests.  According 
to  Greek  belief,  the  gods  revealed  their  will  to  man- 
kind by  various  signs  and  visions  ;  it  was  not  everyone, 
however,  who  knew  how  to  interpret  these  signs ;  a 
deep  knowledge  of  the  divine  nature  and  will,  as  well 


RELIGIOUS  WORSHIP.  325 

as  a  rich  treasure  of  experience  were  required,  and 
it  was,  therefore,  natural  that  they  turned  for  this 
purpose  to  those  who  had  devoted  their  whole  life  to 
discovering  the  will  of  the  gods.  These  were  the 
seers  or  interpreters  who  were  closely  connected  with 
the  priests,  though  they  must  not  be  identified  with 
them. 

When  we  speak  of  a  priestly  class  among  the 
Greeks,  we  must  not  take  it  in  the  literal  sense  of  the 
word ;  the  Greek  priests  did  not  constitute  a  class  in 
our  modern  sense  of  the  word,  since  there  were  no 
preliminary  studies  required  for  the  office.  Greek 
religion  possessed  no  dogmas ;  the  priest's  duty  was 
only  to  perform  certain  rites  and  ceremonies,  and  these 
were  easily  learnt.  Consequently,  the  priesthood  in 
Greece  was  limited  to  no  age  and  no  sex ;  boys  and 
girls,  youths  and  maidens,  men  and  married  women 
could  perform  priestly  functions  for  a  long  or  short 
period.  The  essential  requirement  was  legitimate 
birth  and  participation  in  the  community  in  which 
the  priestly  functions  had  to  be  performed;  bodily 
purity  and  moral  character  were  also  required  ;  mem- 
bers of  ancient  and  noble  families  were  especially 
privileged,  and  sometimes  bodily  strength  and  beauty 
were  regarded  in  the  choice.  Generally  speaking, 
however,  the  requirements  made  differed  not  only 
according  to  the  gods  in  whose  service  they  were  to 
stand,  but  also  according  to  local  or  other  accidental 
circumstances.  Thus  sometimes  priestesses  were  re- 
quired to  be  virgins,  if  not  for  their  whole  life,  at  any 
rate  for  the  duration  of  their  priesthood;  in  other 
cases,  however,  married  women  might  undertake  the 
priestly  functions.  The  same  held  good  for  the  men. 
Although,  as  a  rule,  priests  entered  for  their  whole 
life,  yet  it  sometimes  happened  that  their  priestly 


326  GREEK   LIFE  AT  HOME. 

functions  were  only  performed  for  a  time,  as  for 
instance,  in  the  case  of  boys  or  girls  who  entered  the 
service  of  the  temple  until  they  attained  their  man 
or  womanhood,  or  in  other  cases  where  citizens  were 
made  priests  for  one  or  several  years,  and,  when 
the  time  was  up,  retired  again  and  let  others  take 
their  place. 

There  were  various  modes  of  appointing  priests. 
They  were  either  elected  from  among  several  candi- 
dates, in  which  case  the  right  of  election  lay  with 
the  citizens  or  their  representatives,  or  else  by  lot,  or 
the  right  was  given  from  birth.  Certain  priesthoods 
were  hereditary  in  families  ;  either  the  first-born  was 
appointed  as  such,  or  else  the  lot  had  to  decide 
between  the  various  members  of  a  family ;  sometimes, 
if  disputes  ensued,  a  legal  decision  might  even  be 
given.  Consequently,  it  is  clear  that  the  priests  in 
Greece  did  not  form  a  special  caste,  and  as  they  very 
often  retired  again  to  private  life,  their  influence  was 
not  extensive  or  very  important. 

The  duties  of  the  priests  consisted,  in  the  first 
instance,  in  performing  those  acts  of  worship  to  the 
divinity  which  might  also  be  performed  by  any  lay- 
man— viz.,  prayers  and  sacrifices ;  and  in  the  second, 
those  which  belonged  to  the  worship  of  the  particular 
divinity,  and  recurred  at  certain  fixed  periods,  and 
particularly  those  which  they  undertook  at  the  re- 
quest of  others.  Besides  this,  there  were  various 
duties  connected  with  the  care  of  the  temple  and 
divine  images,  the  fulfilment  of  the  various  cus- 
toms connected  with  the  worship  of  each  divinity, 
the  performance  of  mysterious  dedications  and  puri- 
fications, guarding '  of  the  temple  treasure,  etc.  To 
this  were  due  various  ordinances  concerning  their 
mode  of  life,  food,  clothing,  etc.  Their  persons  were 


RELIGIOUS  WORSHIP.  327 

regarded  as  sacred,  just  as  the  sanctuary  was,  and 
they  also  received  their  share  in  the  adoration  paid 
to  the  gods,  being  regarded,  in  a  measure,  as  their 
representatives.  Very  often  they  had  a  house  in  the 
temple  domain,  and  received  a  share  of  its  income, 
which  had,  in  the  first  instance,  to  supply  the  means 
for  performing  the  service  of  the  god,  erecting  neces- 
sary buildings,  statues,  etc.,  but  which  often  supplied 
the  priests  also  with  considerable  profit;  thus,  the 
skins  and  certain  parts  of  the  sacrificial  animals  fell 
to  their  lot.  In  some  of  the  sanctuaries  the  income 
derived  from  the  temple  property  and  the  money 
lent  out  for  interest  from  the  temple  treasure,  was 
very  considerable,  and  far  exceeded  the  means  re- 
quired for  the  maintenance  of  the  sanctuary  and 
the  service  of  the  god.  Another  privilege  enjoyed  by 
the  priests  was  the  right  of  occupying  places  of  honour 
in  the  theatre  and  at  public  meetings.  They  were 
usually  distinguished  by  their  dress  from  the  rest  ol 
the  citizens ;  they  wore  the  long  chiton,  which  had 
gone  out  of  fashion  for  ordinary  people ;  it  was  gener- 
ally of  white  or  purple  colour,  and  they  had  wreaths 
and  fillets  in  their  long  hair,  and  probably  carried  a 
staff  as  a  token  of  dignity. 

The  priests  were  assisted  in  their  duties  in  the 
temples  by  a  large  number  of  attendants  and  servants. 
Some  of  these  only  took  part  occasionally  in  a  pro- 
cession or  sacrifice,  and,  as  this  was  regarded  as  an 
honour,  they  gave  their  service  without  return.  Some 
were  permanent  temple  servants,  who  either  per- 
formed for  pay  certain  menial  services  connected  with 
the  worship  and  the  care  of  the  temple,  or  else  were, 
slaves  and  the  property  of  the  god.  Among  these  were 
included  the  so-called  "  temple-sweepers  "  (veocicopoi),  men 
and  women  whose  duty  it  was  to  clean  and  care  for 


328  GREEK  LIFE   AT   HOME. 

the  temple.  There  were  also  heralds,  sacrificial  servants, 
butchers,  bearers  of  the  sacred  vessels,  singers  and 
musicians,  etc.,  concerning  whom  inscriptions  give  us 
a  good  deal  of  information.  Even  these  positions,  so 
long  as  the  services  to  be  performed  were  not  menial 
but  honourable,  were  an  object  of  ambition  to  citizens, 
or  regarded  as  a  valuable  privilege  inherited  by  certain 
families ;  thus,  for  instance,  atOlympia,  the  descendants 
of  Pheidias  had  charge  of  the  statue  of  Zeus,  which 
was  the  masterpiece  of  their  ancestor. 

The  two  forms  in  which  the  worship  of  the  ancients 
chiefly  consisted  were  prayer  and  sacrifice.  Prayer, 
either  to  all  the  gods  together  or  to  some  single  one, 
consecrated  the  beginning  and  end  of  the  day ;  com- 
bined with  libations,  it  attended  the  beginning  and  end 
of  the  meals,  and  was,  in  fact,  an  essential  part  of  every 
important  action  of  daily  life.  These  prayers  were,  of 
course,  of  a  general  character,  but  there  were  other 
occasions  when  special  prayers  were  used,  adapted  to 
particular  cases ;  thus  it  was  a  matter  of  course  that 
in  the  assemblies  of  the  people  the  blessing  of  the  god 
should  be  invoked  on  the  discussion.  When  they  set 
out  to  war  they  called  on  the  help  of  the  god  in  the 
coming  fight,  and  similarly  private  citizens  asked  for 
divine  aid  in  their  undertakings  and  help  in  difficulties, 
though  some  wiser  men — and  especially  those  who  had 
had  a  philosophical  training — could  not  disguise  from 
themselves  that  it  was  a  foolish  hope  to  expect  that 
their  prayers  should  necessarily  be  heard,  and  they 
looked  upon  prayer  rather  as  a  religious  consecration 
of  human  actions.  Kneeling  and  folding  the  hands 
•were  unknown  to  the  ancients.  In  praying  they  stood 
and  stretched  out  their  hands  to  the  region  which  they 
supposed  to  be  the  dwelling  of  the  godhead  invoked  ; 
thus,  they  held  them  upward  when  praying  to  one  of 


RELIGIOUS   WORSHIP.  329 

the  Olympian  deities,  forward  when  praying  to  a  sea 
god,  and  down  to  the  ground  if  the  prayer  was  addressed 
to  one  of  the  infernal  deities,  at  the  same  time  trying 
to  attract  his  attention  by  stamping  on  the  ground. 
The  commonest  position  was  towards  the  east ;  when 
t.hey  prayed  in  the  temple  they  turned  towards  the 
altar  and  the  statue  of  the  god,  and  sometimes  even 
embraced  the  altar.  In  fact,  the  worship  of  the  temple 
statues  led  to  a  very  sensual  conception  of  prayer ; 
they  not  only  threw  kisses  to  the  god  they  were  wor- 
shipping, but  even  touched  or  kissed  his  statue; 
while  suppliants  threw  themselves  on  the  ground 
before  the  temple  image,  or  at  any  rate  knelt  down 
before  it. 

In  order  to  ensure  the  efficacy  of  the  prayer,  those 
who  offered  it  must  be  free  from  every  bodily  and 
moral  taint  and,  therefore,  if  necessary,  submit  to 
purification.  There  were  a  number  bf  occasions 
which  rendered  a  man  unclean  and  unfit  for  inter- 
course with  the  deity ;  such  were  birth  and  death, 
which  required  the  purification  of  all  those  who 
had  come  in  contact  with  the  mother  or  the  dead 
person,  not  only  in  order  that  they  might  appear  un- 
tainted before  the  deity,  but  also  to  prevent  their 
communicating  their  impurity  to  others,  and  to  en- 
able them  once  more  to  enter  into  intercourse  with 
human  beings.  Even  apart  from  these  special  occa- 
sions it  was  impossible  to  tell  whether  some  accidental 
contact  might  have  produced  impurity,  and  on  this 
account  it  was  usual  to  precede  the  act  of  prayer  by 
washing,  or,  at  any  rate,  by  a  symbolical  purification, 
such  as  sprinkling  with  holy  water.  For  this  purpose 
a  vessel  Avith  holy  water  and  a  whisk  for  sprinkling 
were  placed  in  the  entrance  of  every  temple  for  the 
use  of  those  who  entered  the  domain ;  similar  arrange- 
L* 


330  GREEK    LIFE    AT   HOME. 

ments  were  made  in  private  houses,  and  preference 
was  given  to  flowing  water,  especially  sea- water,  which 
was  supposed  to  have  special  purifying  power ;  for 
sprinkling  they  used  a  branch  of  some  sacred  tree, 
such  as  laurel.  This  purification  was  extended  not 
only  to  the  'person  of  those  who  approached  the 
divinity,  but  also  to  their  garments  and  the  utensils 
used  for  prayer  and  sacrifice,  as  well  as  the  dwelling 
generally  ;  consequently,  purification  by  fire  and 
smoke — especially  by  means  of  burnt  sulphur — 
played  an  important  part  along  with  the  washing. 
There  were  also  certain  plants  to  which  a  purifying 
power  was  ascribed ;  thus,  it  was  customary  to  hang 
up  a  sea-leek  over  the  house  door. 

Purification  of  this  kind  was,  of  course,  even  more 
necessary  when  some  actual  crime,  such  as  a  murder, 
even  if  an  accidental  one,  had  been  committed,  or  any 
other  action  performed  which  would  render  a  man 
unfit  to  come  into  the  presence  of  the  deity.  In  these 
cases  an  important  part  was  also  played  by  sacrifices, 
for  it  was  an  ancient  belief — found  also  in  the  Jewish 
ritual — that  sins  could  be  laid  on  the  victim,  and  in 
this  way  removed  from  the  sinner.  Special  cere- 
monies were  used  on  such  occasions,  such  as  puri- 
fication by  the  blood  of  swine,  since  these  animals 
were  supposed  to  have  a  special  lustral  power.  At 
Athens  it  was  the  custom  to  sacrifice  sucking-pigs 
before  the  assembly  of  the  people  was  held;  the 
slaughtered  animals  were  carried  round  the  as- 
sembly, the  seats  sprinkled  with  their  blood,  and 
the  bodies  thrown  into  the  sea.  On  a  vase  painting 
representing  the  purification  of  Orestes  after  the 
murder  of  his  mother,  Apollo  himself  holds  a  sucking- 
pig  above  the  head  of  the  murderer;  a  similar  pro- 
ceeding is  represented  by  the  vase  painting  Fig.  143, 


RELIGIOUS  WORSHIP. 


331 


where  the  woman  who  is  performing  the  lustral  rites 
— probably  a  priestess — holds  in  her  right  hand  a 
sucking-pig,  in  her  left  a  basket  with  offerings,  while 
three  torches  stand  on  the  ground  in  front  of  her, 
the  smoke  of  which  also  possessed  purifying  power. 
Similar  ceremonies  were  observed  by  those  who, 


FIG.  143. 


according  to  a  very  common  superstition,  regarded 
themselves  as  bewitched,  or  who  desired  to  protect 
themselves  from  the  injurious  influence  of  philtres 
or  other  witchcraft,  or  else  to  cure  madness,  which 
was  traced  to  the  wrath  of  the  infernal  gods ;  in  these 
cases,  Hecate  was  the  goddess  to  be  propitiated,  and 
part  of  the  curious  ceremony  consisted  in  carrying 
about  young  dogs. 

Next  to  prayer,  the  commonest  observance  was 
sacrifice.  The  anthropomorphic  conception  of  the 
gods  induced  the  Greeks  to  try  to  win  their  favour, 


332 


GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 


as  they  would  that  of  powerful  princes,  by  means  of 
gifts,  in  the  belief  that  they  would  be  more  inclined 
to  fulfil  human  wishes  if  they  were  propitiated  by 
valuable  presents.  These  gifts  consisted  in  dedicatory 
offerings  and  also  in  sacrifices,  and  these  had  to  be 
regularly  offered  in  order  to  preserve  the  goodwill 
of  the  divinities.  Generally  speaking,  any  gift  offered 


FIG.  144. 

to  the  god  might  be  regarded  as  a  sacrifice ;  but,  as 
a  rule,  this  name  was  only  applied  to  those  offerings 
which  were  not  to  be  a  lasting  possession  of  the  god 
but  were  only  given  for  momentary  enjoyment,  and 
must,  as  a  rule,  be  destroyed,  generally  by  means  of 
fire.  The  idea  underlying  these  sacrifices  was  the 
participation  of  the  gods  in  the  material  posses- 
sions of  men.  The  gifts  included  under  the  heading 
of  offerings  were  not  all  of  such  a  nature  as  to  be 
destroyed  at  once  ;  thus,  first-fruits  of  the  field,  fruit, 
jars  of  cooked  lentils,  flowers,  fillets,  and  other  such 
things  could  not  be  regarded  as  real  gifts,  owing  to 


RELIGIOUS   WORSHIP.  333 

their  transitory  nature;  and  these  were  merely  laid 
on  the  altar  of  the  god,  or  else  hung  up  beside  it ; 
sometimes  there  was  a  special  table  near  the  altar  to 
receive  these  gifts.  On  the  vase  painting  (Fig.  144)  a 


FIG.  145. 

table  of  this  kind  is  represented  near  the  altar ;  be- 
hind it  we  perceive  the  antiquated  statue  of  Dionysus, 
on  one  side  stands  a  woman  with  a  goat  destined  for 
sacrifice,  and  on  the  right  another  woman  is  approach- 
ing carrying  a  flat  dish,  probably  containing  cakes. 
The  offerings  represented  in  Figs.  145  and  146  were 
probably  also  destined  for  Dionysus.  A  satyr,  carry- 
ing in  his  left  hand  a  branch,  in  his  right  a  dish, 
probably  containing  cakes,  is  approaching  an  altar,  on 
which  similar  gifts  have  already  been  placed  ;  on  the 


334  GREEK  LIFE  AT  HOME. 

other  side,  near  the  table  for  offerings,  on  which  lie 
fruit  and  cakes,  a  woman,  probably  a  Maenad,  is  seated, 
holding  in  her  right  hand  a  branch,  in  her  left  a  flat 
basket  with  little  dedicatory  offerings.  Although 
these  gifts  were  not  immediately  destroyed  by  fire, 
they  were  of  so  transitory  a  nature  that  they  could 
not  be  counted  among  those  destined  to  be  a  lasting 
possession  of  the  gods.  The  Greeks  called  these  gifts 
fireless  sacrifices. 


FIG.  146. 


Sacrifices  were  usually  divided  into  two  classes 
— bloody  and  bloodless.  The  bloodless  seem  to  be 
the  most  ancient ;  they  consisted  chiefly  in  the  first- 
fruits  of  the  field  and  cakes,  usually  made  of  honey, 
which  were  regarded  as  a  specially  welcome  gift  by 
some  of  the  gods.  Very  often  cakes  were  used  as  a 
substitute  for  animals,  since  poor  people,  who  could 
not  afford  the  considerable  expense  of  sacrificing  real 
animals,  fashioned  the  dough  into  the  shape  of  oxen, 
swine,  sheep,  goats,  geese,  etc.  In  this  class  we  may 
include  smoke  offerings.  The  custom  of  burning  sweet- 
scented  woods  and  spices  probably  came  to  Greece 
from  Asia,  where  it  had  long  prevailed.  At  first  they 


RELIGIOUS  WORSHIP.  335 

made  use  of  the  products  of  the  country,  especially 
cedar  wood  ;  afterwards  frankincense,  storax,  and  other 
fragrant  substances  were  introduced  from  foreign 
countries.  These  smoke  offerings  were  often  connected 
with  animal  sacrifices,  since  grains  of  incense  were  cast 
into  the  flames  of  the  altar  on  which  the  flesh  of  the 
animal  was  burnt,  in  order  to  overpower  the  smell  of 
burning  meat.  Libations,  too,  may  be  included  among 
bloodless  sacrifices.  Just  as  the  gods  required  a 
portion  of  the  food  of  men,  they  desired  also  to  share 
in  their  drink,  for  they  were  supposed  to  require 
food  and  drink  as  men  did.  Libations  were  therefore 
offered  before  partaking  of  wine  after  a  meal,  or  drink- 
ing any  other  draught,  and  Socrates  even  wished  to 
offer  some  of  his  hemlock  to  the  gods.  On  other  occa- 
sions too  libations  were  offered,  as  for  instance  before 
public  speeches,  on  the  occasion  of  sacrifices  for  the 
dead,  invocation  of  the  gods  for  especial  purposes,  etc. 
The  part  of  the  wine  or  other  liquid  destined  for 
the  god  was  poured  from  a  flat  cup  either  on  to 
the  ground  or  into  the  flame  of  the  altar,  and  words 
of  consecration  were  spoken  meantime.  It  was  most 
usual  to  use  unmixed  wine,  but  there  were  some 
gods  to  whom  no  wine  might  be  offered,  in  particular 
the  Erinnys,  the  infernal  deities,  nymphs,  Muses,  etc. ; 
to  these  they  dedicated  libations  of  honey,  milk,  or  oil, 
either  separately  or  mixed  together,  or  with  water. 
On  these  occasions  there  were  certain  fixed  ceremonies 
to  be  observed,  but  these  were  not  the  same  in  all  parts 
of  Greece. 

There  are  numerous  indications  in  legends  which 
show  that  the  Greeks  were  not  originally  unac- 
quainted with  the  custom  of  human  sacrifices ;  but 
these  are  no  longer  heard  of  in  the  historic  period, 
and  wherever  they  had  formerly  existed  their  place 


336  GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 

was  taken  by  symbolic  actions,  or  the  sacrifice  of 
animals  instead  of  human  beings.  The  commonest 
victims  were  animals,  and  the  choice  of  -the  par- 
ticular victim  depended  on  the  god  to  whom  the 
sacrifice  was  offered.  Here,  as  in  the  case  of  the  blood- 
less sacrifices,  some  gods  rejected  gifts  which  were 
well-pleasing  to  others,  and  special  animals  were  offered 
to  particular  gods.  It  is  not  always  easy  to  trace  the 
origin  of  this  choice,  though  in  some  cases  it  can  be 
done ;  thus,  for  instance,  goats  were  offered  to  Dionysus 
because  they  destroyed  the  vineyards,  and  swine  to 
Demeter  because  they  injured  the  corn-fields.  Oxen 
and  sheep  were  the  commonest  victims  next  to  goats 
and  swine,  and  very  often  several  animals  were  offered 
in  a  common  sacrifice.  Horses  were  offered  to 
Poseidon  and  Helios,  dogs  to  Hecate,  asses  to  Apollo, 
etc.  Birds,  too,  were  sacrificed ;  for  instance,  geese, 
doves,  fowls,  and,  in  particular,  cocks  to  Aesculapius. 
Game  and  fish  were  very  seldom  employed  for  the 
purpose,  probably  because  they  were  not  much  used 
for  food  in  ancient  times ;  for  in  most  cases  the 
standard  of  eating  decided  which  animals  should  be 
used,  though  there  were  exceptions,  too,  among  the 
cLisses  already  named. 

It  was  originally  the  custom  to  burn  the  whole 
animal,  with  skin  and  hah1,  but  though  this  extravagant 
mode  of  sacrificing  was  sometimes  in  use  in  later 
times,  it  became  common  to  burn  only  the  thigh 
bones  and  certain  flesh  parts  of  the  animal,  and  to 
use  the  rest  for  a  festive  banquet.  In  consequence  the 
number  of  victims  was  often  calculated  according  to 
the  number  of  persons  invited  to  the  banquet;  in 
other  cases  it  depended  on  the  importance  of  the 
occasion,  or  the  fortune  of  the  sacrificers,  and  even  hi 
historical  times  it  was  not  unusual  for  whole  commu- 


.      RELIGIOUS   WORSHIP.  337 

nities  or  very  rich,  private  citizens  to  offer  a  hecatomb 
(a  sacrifice  of  a  hundred  oxen),  or  even  several,  on 
which  occasions  the  sacrifice  only  supplied  the  oppor- 
tunity for  entertaining  the  people  on  a  magnificent 
scale.  As  a  rule,  the  animals  sacrificed  must  be  sound 
and  healthy  in  every  respect;  but  at  Sparta,  which 
was  often  reproached  with  excessive  economy  in  sacri- 
fices, diseased  cattle  were  sometimes  used.  There 
were  several  other  necessary  conditions  to  be  observed ; 
thus,  the  animals  must  never  have  been  in  the  service 
of  man ;  the  ox  that  drew  the  plough  might  not  be 
sacrificed.  The  sex  of  the  victim  generally  corre- 
sponded to  that  of  the  deity  to  whom  it  was  offered. 
Even  the  colour  was  of  importance ;  white  animals 
were  usually  offered  to  the  gods  of  light,  black  to  the 
infernal  gods.  There  do  not  seem  to  have  been  any 
fixed  regulations  with  regard  to  age,  except  that  the 
animals  must  have  attained  a  certain  maturity. 

The  ceremony  observed  at  sacrifices  was  much  the 
same  throughout  the  whole  of  antiquity,  and  remained 
such  as  it  is  described  by  Homer.  The  victim  which 
had  been  dedicated  to  the  god,  was  adorned  with 
wreaths  and  fillets,  and  led  to  the  altar  by  servants  or 
attendants;  Homer  speaks  of  gilding  the  horns  of 
bulls,  and  this  was  customary  afterwards.  If  pos- 
sible, they  tried  to  induce  the  animal  to  go  forward 
of  its  own  free  will,  since  violent  struggling  was  re- 
garded .as  an  unpropitious  omen,  and  sometimes  led 
to  the  rejection  of  the  victim.  It  was  even  customary 
to  require  the  animal  to  give  a  sort  of  consent,  by 
nodding  its  head ;  this  consent  of  the  victim  was,  of 
course,  produced  by  artificial  means,  such  as  pouring 
water  into  the  ears,  etc.  Hereupon  all  the  participants 
in  the  solemn  action  were  prepared  by  sprinkling  with 
holy  water,  which  was  sanctified  by  dipping  into  it  a 


338  GREEK  LIFE  AT  HOME.   ' 

firebrand  taken  from  the  altar,  and  they  were  exhorted 
to  keep  unbroken  silence.  The  actual  sacrifice  then 
began  by  strewing  roasted  barleycorns,  as  the  oldest 
food  of  their  ancestors,  on  the  animal,  and  in  token  of 
dedication  they  cut  a  bundle  of  hairs  from  its  fore- 
head and  threw  it  into  the  fire,  which  was  already 
burning  on  the  altar.  In  heroic  ages,  the  princes,  as 
high  priests,  themselves  killed  the  animals;  afterwards 
this  duty  was  undertaken  by  priests  or  attendants. 
They  gave  the  animal  a  blow  on  its  forehead  with 
a  club  or  axe,  and  then  cut  its  throat  with  a  sacri- 
ficial knife,  and  sprinkled  the  altar  with  the  blood ; 
in  so  doing  they  usually  bent  the  head  backwards  ; 
or,  if  sacrificing  to  the  infernal  gods,  or  the  shades 
of  the  departed,  they  pressed  it  down  to  the  ground. 
When  the  victim  fell,  the  women  who  stood  round 
uttered  a  low  cry,  and  in  the  ages  after  Homer  it 
was  very  usual  to  accompany  the  whole  ceremony 
by  the  sound  of  the  flute.  Experienced  attendants 
then  flayed  the  animals  and  cut  up  the  bodies, 
whereupon  the  parts  destined  for  the  gods,  espe- 
cially the  thigh  bones  surrounded  with  fat,  were 
burnt  in  the  flames  of  the  altar  with  incense  and 
sacrificial  cakes,  and  at  the  same  time  libations  were 
poured  out ;  the  flesh  was  held  in  the  fire  by  means  of 
long  forks.  This  is  very  often  represented  on  ancient 
works  of  art.  In  the  vase  painting  in  Fig.  147  we 
see  an  altar  on  which  wood  appears  to  be  regularly 
piled  up ;  parts  of  the  sacrifice  are  recognised  in  the 
flames.  An  attendant  wearing  a  short  garment  round 
his  loins  kneels  in  front,  holding  a  piece  of  flesh  in 
the  flames  on  a  long  pole  or  spit;  on  his  left  a  man 
holds  a  cup  for  libations,  into  which  a  goddess  of 
victory,  flying  over  the  altar,  pours  the  liquid ;  on  the 
right  stands  Apollo,  with  lyre  and  plectrum. 


340  GREEK   LIFE  AT  HOME. 

The  flesh  of  the  animals  which  was  not  used  for 
the  sacrifice  was  usually  consumed  at  the  feast  which 
followed  the  ceremony ;  this  custom  was  only  departed 
from  in  the  case  of  sacrifices  to  the  shades  of  the  dead 
or  for  purposes  of  propitiation,  and  then  the  flesh 
which  was  not  burnt  was  buried  or  destroyed  in  some 
other  way,  and,  in  fact,  on  these  occasions  many  of  the 
ceremonies  were  of  a  different  kind. 

As  a  rule,  another  purpose  was  combined  with 
the  sacrifice  ;  it  was  necessary  not  only  to  win  the 
favour  of  the  gods,  or  atone  for  some  crime,  but 
also  to  discover  the  will  of  the  gods  by  interpreta- 
tion of  signs.  Although  prayer  was  called  for  from 
all  men — from  labourer  as  well  as  from  priest — 
and  sacrifices,  though  usually  offered  by  priests, 
could  also  be  performed  by  others,  the  interpre- 
tation of  omens  was  an  art  which  depended  on 
ancient  traditions  and  knowledge  of  ritual,  and  was 
almost  entirely  confined  to  the  priests,  though,  in  the 
nature  of  things,  it  could  be  undertaken  by  anyone. 
This  mode  of  prophecy  had  existed  in  various  forms 
since  the  most  ancient  times.  The  commonest, 
though  unknown  in  the  time  of  Homer,  was  the 
examination  of  the  entrails,  in  which  the  structure, 
that  is,  colour,  form,  and  integrity  of  the  inner  parts 
of  the  victim,  especially  the  liver,  gall,  etc.,  were 
regarded  as  of  fortunate  or  unfortunate  omen.  Some 
anatomical  knowledge  of  the  inner  parts  of  animals 
was  therefore  indispensable,  and  in  consequence  it  is 
natural  that  this  branch  of  knowledge  was  kept  in 
the  hands  of  the  priests.  The  older  kind  of  pro- 
phecy described  in  Homer  was  of  a  dillcrcnt  nature, 
since  it  depended  on  all  manner  of  phenomena 
appearing  during  the  sacrifice ;  whether  the  flame 
attacked  the  victim  quickly  or  slowly,  whether  it 


RELIGIOUS  WORSHIP.  341 

burnt  clearly,  whether  it  rose  upwards,  whether  it 
was  not  put  out  until  the  whole  animal  was  con- 
sumed, whether  the  wood  crackled  loudly,  whatj 
shape  was  assumed  by  the  ashes  of  the  victim  and 
of  the  wood,  etc. 

Apart  from  sacrifices,  prophecy  and  divination 
played  a  great  part  in  the  life  and  religion  of  the 
Greeks.  A  distinction  made  by  the  ancients  them- 
selves was  between  prophecy  by  art  and  without  art. 
Prophecy  without  art  was  regarded  as  inspiration 
of  a  human  being  by  the  divine  spirit,  and  was  not 
dependent  on  external  signs  or  on  the  interpretation 
of  an  experienced  person.  There  were  three  kinds : 
ecstasy,  in  which  the  gift  of  prophecy  was  com- 
municated to  a  human  being  without  his  own  assist- 
ance by  divine  strength  and  power ;  dreams,  in  which 
the  gods  revealed  directly  to  men  their  will  or  coming 
events ;  and  thirdly,  the  oracles,  which  were  of  a 
somewhat  different  character,  being  connected  with 
professional  prophecy.  They  were  also  regarded  as 
direct  revelations  of  the  will  of  the  god,  so  the  mode 
in  which  this  was  expressed  differed  a  good  deal 
according  to  the  various  oracles ;  but  the  questioner 
was  not  immediately  inspired,  as  in  ecstasy  and 
dreams,  but  required  a  mediator,  one  who  was  alone 
able  to  interpret  the  revelations  of  the  gods. 

Of  these  three  classes,  the  least  important  during 
the  historic  period  is  ecstasy;  the  seers  in  the  real 
sense  of  the  word,  whom  we  so  often  meet  with  in 
legends,  had  no  importance  later  on.  The  second 
kind,  the  dream  oracle,  is  of  far  greater  importance. 
The  idea  that  dreams  were  communications  from  the 
gods,  no  less  than  other  oracles  and  signs,  was  so 
universally  adopted  that  it  not  only  took  firm  root  in 
the  popular  belief,  but  was  shared  by  educated 


342  GREEK  LIFE   AT  HOME. 

even  by  those  who  had  more  or  less  discarded  the 
old  belief  in  the  gods.  The  ancient  writers  give  us 
numerous  accounts  of  portentous  dreams ;  unlucky 
dreams  were  averted  by  religious  ceremonies,  sacri- 
fices to  the  gods  who  could  turn  away  ill  fortune, 
sprinkling  with  holy  water,  etc.  It  was  usual  to  pray 
for  prophetic  dreams,  and,  as  we  have  already  seen, 
these  were  specially  produced  by  sleeping  in  the 
temple  of  Aesculapius,  though  they  often  required 
interpretation  afterwards  at  the  hands  of  the  priests. 
It  is  a  very  old  belief  that  dreams  reveal  the  will  of 
the  gods,  not  directly  and  immediately,  but  in  the 
form  of  parables  or  images,  which  require  special 
comprehension  and  secret  knowledge,  and  thus  the 
interpretation  of  dreams  became  an  especial  art, 
which  led  to  a  whole  literature  of  dream-books 
(remains  of  which  have  been  preserved  to  us ;  in 
particular  the  dream-book  of  Artemidorus,  dating 
from  the  second  century  A.D.),  and  to  the  profession 
of  interpreters,  who,  although  not  held  in  especial 
honour,  were  yet  greatly  sought  after  by  all  classes 
of  the  community. 

The  influence  of  the  oracles  was  even  more  im- 
portant. In  Greece  and  Asia  Minor  there  were  several 
hundred  places  where  oracles  were  given ;  this  much 
is  common  to  all  of  them,  that  it  was  not  a  divinely- 
inspired  human  being,  but  the  god  himself  who 
announced  his  will  by  special  tokens,  while  the 
priests  were  only  the  interpreters  of  the  god's  will; 
the  signs  and  methods  of  interpretation  differed  con- 
siderably. The  oracles  of  Apollo  were  far  the  most 
celebrated,  since  he  was  specially  the  god  of  prophecy ; 
among  these,  the  oracle  of  Delphi  surpassed  all  others 
in  importance.  Here  the  medium  through  which 
the  god  revealed  his  will  to  mankind  was  the  holy 


RELIGIOUS  WORSHIP.  343 

priestess  called  Pythia ;  a  vapour  which  rose  from  a 
cleft  in  the  earth  produced  ecstasy  in  the  Pythia, 
who  had  previously  purified  herself  by  chewing  laurel 
leaves  and  drinking  from  the  sacred  spring,  and  clad 
in  rich  garments  with  a  golden  head-dress,  long 
flowing  robes,  and  buskins,  and  had  taken  her  place 
on  a  tripod  over  the  cleft.  In  this  condition  she 
uttered  the  oracles,  which  were,  as  a  rule,  incompre- 
hensible to  ordinary  people.  It  was  then  the  duty  of 
the  priests  who  were  present  during  the  ecstasy  with 
the  questioners,  to  discover  the  real  meaning  and 
sense  of  the  senseless  sounds,  and  arrange  the  answer 
in  poetic  form,  usually  in  hexameters,  which  were,  as 
a  rule,  cunningly  arranged  so  as  to  have  a  two-fold 
meaning.  At  first  this  took  place  only  once  a  year, 
but  when  the  reputation  of  the  oracle  increased,  and 
thousands  of  people  came  every  year  to  Delphi,  or 
sent  messengers  with  questions  to  the  temple,  it 
became  the  custom  to  supply  answers  all  the  year 
round,  and,  in  consequence  of  the  great  numbers, 
two  Pythiae  had  to  mount  the  tripod  alternately, 
while  a  third  was  at  hand  to  take  their  place  occa- 
sionally. Only  a  few  days  in  the  year  were  regarded 
as  unlucky,  and  then  no  oracles  were  given.  At  the 
time  of  the  Empire,  when  the  influence  of  the  Delphic 
oracle  had  considerably  diminished,  it  was  only  ac- 
cessible once  a  year.  The  order  in  which  the  sup- 
pliants were  to  enter  was  generally  decided  by  lot; 
in  some  few  cases  it  may  have  been  determined  by 
rank.  Prayer  and  sacrifice  of  course  preceded  the 
sacred  ceremony ;  goats  were  chiefly  offered,  because, 
according  to  the  legends,  the  discovery  of  this 
miraculous  vapour  was  due  to  a  goat. 

At  the  other  oracles  of  Apollo  the  proceedings 
were  different :  at  Hysiae,  in  Boeotia,  the   prophet 


344  GREEK  LIFE  AT  HOME. 

sought  his  inspiration  in  a  well;  at  Argos,  in  the 
blood  of  a  victim  ;  at  the  Clarian  temple  of  Apollo,  at 
Colophon,  a  priest  descended  into  the  sacred  cave 
and  drank  holy  water,  whereupon  the  gift  of  prophecy 
was  granted  to  him ;  at  the  sanctuary  of  the  Bran- 
chidae,  at  Didymae,  near  Miletus,  the  oracles  were 
given  by  a  priestess,  who  moistened  the  hem  of  her 
garment  and  her  feet  at  a  well,  and  then  let  the 
rising  vapour  act  upon  her.  At  other  oracles  the  god 
revealed  his  will  or  the  events  of  the  future  by 
signs  instead  of  words,  which  the  priest  then  had 
to  interpret.  This  was  the  case  with  the  oldest 
and  most  sacred  of  all  the  Greek  oracles — that  of 
Zeus,  at  Dodona  in  Epirus.  These  signs  were  of 
various  kinds :  sometimes  it  was  the  rustling  of 
the  branches  in  the  sacred  oak,  sometimes  the  mur- 
muring of  the  spring  at  its  foot,  sometimes  the  sound 
given  by  a  brass  bowl.  The  excavations  lately  under- 
taken at  Dodona  have  supplied  some  information  about 
the  nature  and  variety  of  the  questions,  though  not 
about  the  mode  in  which  the  oracle  was  given.  Those 
who  desired  an  oracular  answer  had  to  hand  hi  their 
question  in  writing,  usuaUy  on  a  tablet  of  lead,  on 
which  it  was  scratched.  This  was  laid  in  a  vessel  and 
placed  in  the  sanctuary,  so  that  the  priestess  might 
learn  what  the  question  was;  the  answer  was  then 
given  on  a  similar  tablet,  sometimes  the  same  on 
which  the  question  had  been  written.  The  examples 
found  of  these  tablets  show  that  these  questions  were 
not  always  of  political  import,  and  sent  by  whole  com- 
.munities  or  princes,  but  that  even  private  affairs  were 
sometimes  made  the  subject  of  a  question.  Thus,  on 
the  tablet  represented  in  Fig.  148,  a  certain  Lysanias 
inquires  whether  the  child  which  his  wife  is  about  to 
bear  him  is  really  his  own ;  another  inquires  whether 


RELIGIOUS  WORSHIP. 


345 


it  would  be  profitable  for  him  to  rear  sheep ;  a  third 
asks  who  has  stolen  the  cushions  he  has  lost.  These 
questions  on  leaden  tablets  were  also  in  use  at  other 
places.  At  the  oracle 
of  Apollo-Coropaeus,  in 
the  Peninsula  Magnesia, 
in  Thessaly,  the  ques- 
tioners had  to  give 
their  names  to  the 
temple  scribe  to  be 
written  on  the  tablet; 
they  were  then  called 
in  turn  and  conducted 
to  the  sanctuary,  where 
the  leaden  tablets  were 
handed  them.  On  these 
they  wrote  their  ques- 
.tions ;  the  tablets  were 
then  collected  and 
placed  hi  a  vessel,  which 
was  sealed  with  the 
official  seal  of  the  tem- 
poral and  spiritual 
officials,  and  left  for 
the  night  in  the  sanc- 
tuary. Next  morning 
the  seals  were  broken, 
the  names  of  the  ques- 
tioners called  according 
to  the  list,  and  the 
tablets  given  back  with 
the  answers.  Among 
oracles  we  must  mention  that  of  Zeus  Ammon,  in  the 
Libyan  Desert,  which  enjoyed  a  great  reputation  in 
Greece  even  in  early  times;  that  of  Zeus  Trophonius, 


346  GREEK  LIFE  AT  HOME. 

at  Lebadia,  in  Boeotia ;  that  of  Amphiaraus,  at  Oropus, 
which  last  was  included  among  the  dream  oracles,  since 
the  mediation  of  the  priests  was  not  required  here,  and 
the  questioners  received  their  revelation  direct  from 
the  god.  It  would  be  impossible  to  enumerate  all  the 
oracles  and  the  customs  observed  there ;  throughout 
the  whole  of  Greek  antiquity  they  played  a  very 
important  part  in  the  life  of  the  nation  and  the  in- 
dividual, and  were  often  decisive  in  political  matters, 
as  well  as  in  trivial  details  of  daily  life. 

Of  no  less  importance  than  the  modes  of  prophecy 
already  mentioned  are  those  which  may  be  called  pro- 
fessional, and  which  did  not  depend  on  a  direct 
revelation  of  the  will  of  the  god,  so  much  as  on  the 
observation  and  interpretation  of  certain  apparently 
fortuitous  signs,  which  were,  however,  supposed  to 
proceed  from  the  divinity.  Of  course,  many  oracles 
were  very  closely  connected  with  these  professional 
prophecies.  Here,  too,  we  may  distinguish  several 
different  kinds.  In  the  first  place,  there  is  interpre- 
tation of  signs  which  appear  though  unsought  for. 
The  number  of  these  is,  of  course,  countless,  since  the 
whole  realm  of  nature  and  life  affords  scope  for  them. 
Signs  of  the  sky,  atmospheric  phenomena,  change  in 
the  course  of  rivers,  earthquakes,  clefts  in  the  ground, 
abnormal  births,  all  which  are  frequently  mentioned 
in  ancient  history,  may  be  included  in  this  class,  as 
also  the  flight  of  birds,  to  which  particular  attention 
was  given,  though  the  proceedings  of  other  animals 
were  also  watched,  or  the  mere  fact  of  their  appear- 
ance was  supposed  to  announce  good  or  evil  fortune. 
Then  there  were  phenomena  relating  to  human  beings, 
such  as  sneezing,  singing  in  the  ears,  words  spoken 
by  chance,  etc.,  and  the  place  where  these  things 
occur  is  of  great  importance,  as,  for  instance,  whether 


RELIGIOUS  WORSHIP.  347 

on  the  right  or  the  left  hand.  The  second  class  of 
professional  prophecy  is  that  in  which  man  seeks  for 
the  signs  and  calls  upon  the  god  to  grant  him  a  token 
of  his  presence  and  will.  In  this  class  we  may  include 
prophecy  from  sacrifice  and  also  some  of  the  oracles, 
but  in  particular  the  private  oracles — if  we  may  use 
this  expression — by  means  of  which  individuals  pro- 
cured signs  by  any  means  whatever,  and  either  in- 
terpreted them  themselves  or  got  some  skilled  prophet 
to  do  it  for  them.  This  closely  resembles  our  modern 
fashion  of  telling  fortunes  from  cards,  and  in  these 
cases  it  was  not  usually  a  priest,  but  some  cheat  or 
conjurer  who  interpreted  the  prophecy  ;  thus  dice  and 
sieves  were  used  for  prophesying,  and  fortunes  were 
told  from  physiognomy,  or  the  lines  of  the  hand,  as 
they  still  are  at  the  present  day. 

The  interpreters  of  prophecy  and  signs,  whether 
belonging  to  the  class  of  priests  or  laymen,  naturally 
represented  their  art  as  coming  direct  from  the  gods, 
and  loved  to  envelop  it  in  the  veil  of  mystery,  though 
in  other  respects  Greek  religion  aimed  at  publicity 
and  universal  comprehension.  There  were,  however, 
some  ceremonies  which  were  closely  concealed  from 
the  world  without ;  and  those  who  took  part  in  them 
were  required  to  observe  absolute  secrecy,  and  were 
subject  to  a  gradual  initiation,  passing  through  several 
stages  before  they  attained  the  final  one.  We  refer  to 
the  mysteries  which  were  universally  known  through- 
out Greece,  and,  owing  to  the  great  number  of  those 
who  sought  initiation,  played  an  important  part  in  the 
life  of  the  ancient  Greeks.  Our  knowledge  of  these 
secret  doctrines  is  very  small,  as  is  natural  under  the 
circumstances,  and,  consequently,  the  most  recent  in- 
vestigations have  led  to  very  different  hypotheses. 
Still,  the  latest  discoveries  enable  us  to  feel  sure  that 


£48  CREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 

these  mysteries  were  not,  as  was  formerly  supposed, 
remains  of  ancient  revealed  wisdom  containing  purer 
and  better  doctrines  than  were  known  to  the 
popular  religion ;  nor  were  they,  as  Voss  supposes, 
merely  priestly  trickery.  They  represented  the 
religious  myths,  and  their  form  corresponded  to 
the  ordinary  religious  worship ;  the  mystery  was  due 
simply  to  the  fact  that  in  the  myth  the  symbolic 
and  allegorical  elements  prevailed,  and  in  the  worship 
the  purifications  and  expiations  had  a  specially  im- 
portant place  ;  while  the  other  ceremonies  connected 
therewith,  such  as  sacrifices,  signs,  dances,  etc.,  bore  a 
strongly  orgiastic  and  ecstatic  character.  There  were 
also  dramatic  or  pantomimic  representations  of  the 
mythical  actions,  and  a  great  number  of  artistic  and 
decorative  means  were  used  to  dispose  the  mind  of 
the  initiated  to  a  condition  suited  for  solemn  and 
mysterious  doctrines.  There  were  no  really  deep 
secrets  hidden  behind  these  mysteries,  which  were 
so  numerous  that  almost  each  god  had  his  own ;  and 
indeed,  the  initiation  was  not  a  difficult  one,  and  was 
open  to  every  free  and  blameless  Greek. 


CHAPTER    XL 

PUBLIC     FESTIVALS. 

The  Olympic  Festival— The  Gymnastic  and  Equestrian  Contests— 
The  Hippodrome — The  Judges — The  Preliminary  Ceremonies — 
The  Course  of  the  Festival — Honours  to  the  Victors — The  Delphic 
Festival  and  Pythian  Games — The  Isthmian  and  Nemean  Games 
— The  Athenian  Festivals — The  Festivals  of  Dionysus. 

IN  ancient  and  in  modern  times  alike  it  has  been 
usual  to  connect  public  festivals  with  some  religious 
observance,  even  though  the  actual  occasion  might  be 
the  celebration  of  the  change  of  the  seasons  or  some 
regular  event  connected  with  agriculture.  Greek 
worship  was  naturally  of  a  cheerful  nature.  The 
sacrifices  were  usually  followed  by  banquets,  which 
communicated  a  festive  character  to  an  act  of  worship, 
and  this  was  often  accompanied  by  singing  and 
dancing,  sometimes  of  a  serious  and  solemn  nature, 
at  other  times  lively  and  cheerful.  As  a  rule,  sacri- 
fices to  the  heavenly  deities  were  offered  early  in  the 
day,  but  the  banquet  did  not  take  place  till  the  after- 
noon, and  thus  opportunity  was  afforded  for  de- 
voting the  interval  to  entertainments,  among  which, 
along  with  song  and  dance,  dramatic  and  gymnastic 
performances  soon  began  to  occupy  a  place,  and 
gradually  to  assume  the  character  of  regular  com- 
petitions. Sacrifices  to  the  infernal  deities  took  place 
in  the  afternoon  or  evening,  and  were,  in  consequence, 
followed  by  a  festival  at  night,  which  often  degenerated 
into  a  wild  orgy.  These  festivities,  which  were  partly 
connected  with  the  worship  and  partly  celebrated  for 
their  own  sake  or  connected  with  ancient  national 


350  GREEK  LIFE  AT  HOME. 

games,  were  at  first  a  natural  consequence  of  the 
religious  ceremonies  and  the  manner  in  which  a 
nation  of  the  cheerful  disposition  of  the  Greeks  would 
celebrate  them.  But  as  these  performances  and 
festivities  came  to  be  more  closely  connected  with  the 
religious  festivals,  they  gradually  became  an  integral 
part  of  them,  and  were  no  longer  left  to  the  arbitrary 
disposition  of  the  persons  concerned,  but  were  taken 
in  hand  by  the  state  or  community,  and  subject  to 
regular  arrangement. 

The  entertainments  most  commonly  added  to  the 
religious  ceremonies  at  the  festivals  were,  in  the  first 
place,  those  of  a  musical  character,  partly  vocal,  partly 
instrumental,  or  a  combination  of  both ;  in  the  second, 
dances,  both  choric  and  pantomimic,  lastly  scenic  repre- 
sentations, gymnastic  contests,  processions,  national 
games,  etc.  Among  these  the  musical,  choregraphic, 
scenic,  and  gymnastic  representations  were  first 
raised  to  the  dignity  of  regular  competitions.  Of 
course,  different  festivals  were  celebrated  in  different 
ways  ;  apart  from  local  differences,  the  very  character 
of  the  divinity  in  whose  honour  the  festival  was  held, 
and  the  different  phases  of  the  legend,  necessitated 
differences  in  the  mode  of  celebration  and  in  the 
regulation  of  those  who  were  to  take  part  in  them ; 
thus  some  festivals  were  celebrated  by  both  sexes 
together,  and  others  by  only  one,  to  the  exclusion  of 
the  other.  In  one  point,  especially,  the  Hellenic 
differed  from  our  modern  Christian  festivals.  It  is 
a  natural  consequence  of  the  Christian  religion  that 
the  great  festivals  are  celebrated  at  the  same  time  by 
all  believers  in  all  parts  of  the  civilised  world,  while 
the  Greek  religion  knew  of  no  such  religious  festivals 
common  to  all  Hellenic  tribes.  There  were  a  number 
of  national  festivals  which  were  of  equal  importance 


PUBLIC  FESTIVAIA  351 

to  all  Greeks ;  but  these  were  not  celebrated  simul- 
taneously throughout  the  country,  but  only  at  one  speci- 
ally appointed  place,  to  which  spectators  came  from  all 
parts,  and  which  thus  provided  an  opportunity  for 
great  national  meetings  recurring  at  regular  intervals. 
In  consequence  of  the  decentralisation  of  the  country, 
these  provided  the  only  means  of  awakening  and 
maintaining  national  feeling  among  the  Greeks. 
Other  festivals  were  peculiar  to  particular  countries, 
or  even  to  towns  or  communities;  the  differences 
existing  in  Greek  belief,  which  are  often  closely  con- 
nected with  national  traditions  and  racial  peculiarities, 
were  also  marked  in  the  act  of  worship.  Even  those 
regular  festivals  which  were  celebrated  alike  in  most 
of  the  Greek  states  were  not  all  held  on  the  same 
day,  but  at  different  times,  which  was  probably 
due  to  the  fact  that  Greek  antiquity  was  acquainted 
with  no  common  calendar.  The  proceedings  at  these 
festivals  also  differed  greatly  according  to  the  place. 
We  know  very  little  about  the  majority;  most 
details  have  come  down  to  us  concerning  the  Attic 
calendar  and  the  customs  in  use  there,  though  even 
here  our  knowledge  is  very  incomplete.  The  great 
Hellenic  national  festivals,  which  were  celebrated  at 
Olympia,  Delphi,  Nemea,  and  on  the  isthmus  of 
Corinth,  will  first  claim  our  attention. 

Of  these  the  Olympic  festival  is  the  oldest,  at  any 
rate  as  regards  its  national  importance.  The  festival 
and  the  games  celebrated  there  existed  long  before 
the  year  776  B.C.,  after  which  its  regular  recurrence 
was  used  for  expressing  the  date  of  the  year ;  still,  it 
is  only  from  this  time  onward  that  we  can  regard  it 
as  a  really  national  festival.  The  Pythians  did  not 
begin  to  calculate  by  their  games  till  the  year  586, 
the  Isthmians  in  582,  and  the  Nemeans  in  573.  The 


352  GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 

Olympic  and  Pythian  festivals  recurred  every  four 
years,  the  other  two  every  two  years ;  the  Olympic 
festivals  always  took  place  at  the  first  full  moon  of 
the  summer  solstice,  the  Pythian  in  the  autumn  of 
the  third  year  of  an  Olympiad ;  we  cannot  determine 
the  exact  period  of  the  others,  and  only  know  that  the 
Isthmian  games  were  held  at  midsummer,  and  the 
Nemean  alternately  in  winter  and  in  summer.  The 
mam  features  of  all,  next  to  the  usual  acts  of  worship, 
such  as  prayer,  sacrifices,  etc.,  was  the  gymnastic  con- 
tests connected  with  them.  All  four  had  attained  so 
great  a  reputation  even  beyond  the  frontiers  of  their 
narrow  home  that  most  of  the  Greek  states  took  part 
in  them  by  means  of  official  embassies  (Oea>puu)  and 
numbers  of  spectators  came  from  a  distance,  and  a  great 
market  was  held  there  in  consequence.  This  universal 
interest  taken  in  the  festivals  gave  them  a  character  of 
inviolability,  so  that  they  were  able  to  continue  even  in 
time  of  war,  since  there  was  always  a  truce  as  long  as 
the  games  lasted,  and  all  who  took  part  in  them  were 
allowed  to  travel  undisturbed,  as  soon  as  the  heralds 
of  peace  had  announced  the  beginning  of  the  sacred 
month,  first  in  their  own  state,  and  afterwards  in  that 
of  all  the  Greeks  who  took  part  in  the  contests.  We 
possess  far  more  details  concerning  the  Olympic 
festival  than  any  other,  and,  in  fact,  it  exceeded  them 
all  in  importance.  The  games  constituted  the  most 
important  part,  and  it  was  for  their  sake  that  spec- 
tators came  from  most  distant  parts  of  the  ancient 
world  to  the  plain  of  the  Alpheus ;  and,  indeed,  the 
myth  concerning  the  origin  of  the  festival  is  inti- 
mately connected  with  these  games.  Every  free-born 
Greek  was  allowed  to  take  part  in  them.  Barbarians 
were  strictly  rejected,  at  any  rate  in  the  best  period  of 
the  Olympic  festival,  and  it  was  not  till  the  time  of 


PUBLIC   FESTIVALS.  353 

the  Roman  Empire,  when  its  glory  had  long  departed, 
that  this  practice  was  abandoned.  They  also  ex- 
cluded all  who  had  committed  murder  or  any  .other 
great  crime,  or  forfeited  the  rights  of  citizenship, 
and  before  the  beginning  of  the  contest  a  strict  exami- 
nation was  held  into  the  claims  of  all  who  desired  to 
take  part.  At  first  only  youths  and  men  were  ad- 
mitted ;  from  632  onwards  boys  were  allowed  to 
contend,  at  any  rate  in  some  of  the  sports.  We  hear 
of  women  taking  part  or  being  victors  in  the  Olympic 
games,  but  this  does  not  mean  that  they  appeared  in 
person  ;  in  the  chariot  races  and  riding  it  was  not  the 
custom  for  the  owner  of  a  horse  to  drive  or  ride,  and 
thus  rich  women  who  were  interested  in  the  training 
of  horses  could  let  them  run  at  the  Olympic  games ; 
and  since  it  was  not  the  charioteer  or  rider,  but  the 
trainer  and  owner  of  the  horses  who  was  crowned, 
they  might  thus  obtain  the  prize. 

The  contests  at  Olvmpia  were  of  a  gymnastic  or 
equestrian  nature ;  musical  contests  were  excluded. 
But  the  perfect  development  of  gymnastics  as 
shown  at  the  Olympic  competitions  only  took 
place  very  gradually.  At  first  the  contests  consisted 
only  in  running,  and  this  was  the  case  for  the  first 
thirty  Olympiads  after  the  time  when  the  counting 
began.  Then  the  double-course  was  introduced,  and 
soon  afterwards  the  long  course  (724  B.C.).  In  the 
year  708  the  pentathlon  was  added,  and  thus  the  most 
important  sports— jumping,  throwing  the  spear  and 
quoit,  and  wrestling — were  introduced,  along  with 
running,  and  henceforward  were  regarded  as  among  the 
most  attractive  parts  of  the  whole  contest.  In  688  a 
boxing-match  was  added ;  in  680,  chariot  races  with 
four  full-grown  horses ;  in  648,  riding  races  and,  the 
pancration.  No  more  contests  were  added ;  .further 
ME 


354  GREEK  LIFE  AT  HOME. 

changes  were  only  slight  modifications,  such  as  the 
admission  of  boys,  who  at  first  took  part  only  in  the 
running  and  wrestling,  then  for  a  short  time  in  the 
pentathlon,  and  afterwards  in  the  boxing-match,  and 
only  in  very  late  times  (200  B.C.)  hi  the  pancration. 
In  the  year  520  the  race  in  full  panoply  was  intro- 
duced, and  in  408  the  'chariot  race  with  two  horses. 
Attempts  were  made  to  introduce  mules  and  mares, 
but  these  were  soon  abandoned  ;  colts  were,  however, 
introduced  for  the  contest  with  four  and  two  horses, 
and  also  for  riding.  It  was  natural  that  when  there 
was  so  large  a  number  of  events  they  could  not  all, 
as  at  first,  take  place  on  one  day;  and,  indeed,  it 
would  hardly  have  been  worth  the  journey  from  such 
great  distances.  From  time  to  time,  as  new  sports 
were  added,  another  day  was  given  to  the  festival, 
so  that  when  the  number  was  complete  it  generally 
lasted  for  five  days,  divided  in  such  a  way  that  the 
three  intermediate  days  were  devoted  to  the  contests, 
the  first  and  last  to  the  public  and  private  sacrifices, 
processions  and  banquets. 

The  gymnastic  contests  have  been  already  dis- 
cussed hi  a  previous  section;  we  must  give  some 
details  here  about  the  equestrian  competitions,  among 
which  racing  with  four-horse  chariots  was  always 
regarded  as  one  of  the  most  splendid.  They  employed 
for  the  purpose  the  light  two-wheeled  chariots  used  in 
battle  hi  the  heroic  age ;  these  had,  as  a  rule,  wheels 
with  four  spokes,  and  the  car  was  open  at  the  back 
and  closed  in  a  semicircular  shape  in  front,  with  two 
bent  hoops  turned  back  behind,  which  were  used  to 
catch  hold  of  hi  jumping  up.  (Compare  the  vase 
painting,  Fig.  149.)  Here  we  see  the  preparations 
for  driving ;  the  charioteer,  clad  in  a  long  garment 
according  to  ancient  custom,  stands  behind  the  two 


356  GREEK  LIFE   AT  HOME. 

horses,  which  are  yoked  to  the  chariot,  and  seems 
about  to  complete  the  arrangement  of  the  harness, 
while  an  attendant  in  a  short  garment  is  helping  him  ; 
another  attendant  leads  a  third  horse,  which  is 
probably  also  to  be  yoked  to  the  chariot ;  whilo 
the  owner  holds  in  his  hand  the  reins  and  the  goad 
with  which  to  urge  on  the  horses.  The  usual  plan 
was  to  fasten  the  middle  horse  to  a  yoke  at  the  end 
of  the  pole  which  is  raised  in  front,  while  the  outer 
horses  were  connected  with  ropes  at  either  side, 
fastened  to  a  ring  in  front  of  the  chariot.  The  reins 
were  all  drawn  through  a  ring  or  loop  at  the  top 
of  the  pole,  and  the  pin  on  to  which  this  ring  was 
fastened  was  connected  with  a  vertical  rod  in  front  of 
the  chariot  by  a  line  drawn  very  tight,  the  object  of 
which  is  not  clear ;  perhaps  it  was  to  establish  equi- 
librium between  the  car,  which  was  drawn  backwards 
by  the  weight  of  the  driver,  and  the  forward  pressure 
given  to  the  pole  by  the  pull  of  the  horses.  This 
picture  aLs<:  shows  other  details  of  harnessing,  the 
bridle,  etc. 

The  races  took  place  in  the  Hippodrome ;  but  the 
one  at  Olympia  is  completely  destroyed,  and  all  the 
knowledge  we  possess  of  its  situation  is  due  to  Pau- 
sanias,  who  gives  us  no  information  concerning  the 
length  of  the  course  to  be  run  twice  by  full-grown 
horses.  However,  he  supplies  a  detailed  description 
.of  the  starting  places,  which  were  very  complicated, 
since  no  competitor  must  have  an  advantage  over 
another  by  starting  earlier  or  having  a  shorter  piece 
of  ground  to  cover.  For  this  purpose  the  two  long 
sides  of  the  Hippodrome  were  of  unequal  length,  and 
the  one  at  the  end  of  which  were  the  goal  and  the 
seats  of  the  judges  was  rather  shorter  than  the  other ; 
the  stands  for  the  chariots  were  not  in  a  straight  line, 


PUBLIC   FESTIVALS.  357 

but  in  the  form  of  the  segment  of  a  circle.  The  ropes, 
which  prevented  the  chariots  from  starting  before 
theappoin ted  time,  did  not  all  drop  at  the  same  moment, 
but  one  after  another  in  such  a  way  that  the  chariots 
started  first  from  the  more  distant  stands,  and  reached  a 
given  point  at  the  same  time  as  those  from  the  nearer 
stands,  which  started  a  few  seconds  later,  so  that  the 
racing  began  at  this  place  under  equal  conditions.  The 
signal  was  given  by  the  sound  of  trumpets,  and  also 
by  some  ingenious  mechanism  which  caused  a  bronze 
dolphin  on  an  elevated  place  at  the  beginning  of  the 
course  to  fall,  while  an  eagle,  which  till  then  had 
rested  on  an  altar,  rose  into  the  air  with  extended 
wings.  At  this  sign  the  barriers  fell,  and  the  chariots 
started  in  the  appointed  order  over  the  longer  side  of 
the  course,  and  then,  turning  back,  returned  by  the 
shorter  side.  This  was  the  exciting  contest  which 
has  been  so  magnificently  described  by  Homer  in  his 
account  of  the  funeral  games  in  honour  of  Patroclus, 
and  by  Sophocles  in  the  "Electra.'  The  victor 
who  first  reached  the  goal,  near  which  sat  the 
umpires,  received  the  much-coveted  reward  of  a 
wreath ;  but  even  the  nexi  «eems  to  have  had  some 
distinction  or,  at  any  rate,  an  honourable  mention. 

Racing  with  four  full-grown  horses  was  always 
most  popular,  but  there  were  also  races  with  two- 
horse  chariots  and  with  colts.  Afterwards,  when 
riding  races  came  into  fashion,  they  became  extremely 
popular,  although  they  never  attained  the  great  im- 
portance claimed  by  the  chariot  races  in  the 
Olympic  games.  In  both  contests  it  was  the  trainer 
of  the  horse  who  was  regarded  as  victor,, and  though  it 
sometimes  happened  that  the  owner  or  his  son  4rove 
or  rode  himself,  yet  it  was  more  commonly  done 
by  strangers,  very  often  by  professional  charioteers 


858  GREEK   LIFE  AT  HOME. 

and  riders  hired  for  the  purpose,  like  our  jockeys 
of  the  present  day.  Instead  of  the  wreath,  which 
was  not  allotted  to  them,  they  received  a  fillet  as 
a  token  of  victory. 

The  judges  ('E\.Xai/o8wcat)  were  appointed  by  the 
Elians,  on  whose  territory  the  games  took  place.  Their 
number  varied  in  the  course  of  years.  At  first,  in 
576  B.C.,  two  citizens  were  chosen  by  lot  to  arrange 
and  superintend  the  contests;  but  a  hundred  years 
later  there  were  nine  judges  appointed,  three  for  the 
equestrian  contests,  three  for  the  pentathlon,  and 
three  for  the  rest  of  the  sports ;  to  these  nine  a  tenth 
was  soon  added,  then  for  a  short  time  the  number 
was  reduced  to  eight,  and  afterwards  once  more  in- 
creased to  ten,  which  remained  the  appointed  number. 
They  were  chosen  by  lot  even  in  later  times.  As  their 
decisions  were  of  extreme  importance,  it  was  regarded 
as  no  small  matter  to  undertake  this  responsible  office ; 
in  fact,  the  judges  had  to  be  trained  in  a  special  build- 
ing in  the  market-place  of  Elis,  in  the  arcades  of 
which  they  spent  the  greater  part  of  the  day  for  ten 
months,  to  be  instructed  in  their  duties  by  the 
guardians  of  the  laws  (vofMxfrvXatces),  and  in  particular 
to  acquire  an  accurate  knowledge  of  gymnastic  rules. 
When  the  time  of  the  games  arrived,  they  took  a 
solemn  oath  in  the  court-house  at  Olyrnpia,  before 
the  altar  of  Zeus  Herkeios ;  their  period  of  office 
extended  only  over  a  single  festival 

Their  duties  were  to  make  the  arrangements  for 
the  contests,  and  all  the  festivals  connected  therewith ; 
to  examine  the  competitors  as  to  their  right  to  enter ; 
to  superintend  the  training  of  the  athletes  and  their 
teachers  in  the  gymnasium ;  to  see  that  the  athletes 
really  entered  for  the  contests  which  they  had  chosen, 
and  that  every  thing  was  done  according  to  established 


PUBLIC   FESTIVALS.  359 

custom,  and  the  laws  of  the  games  were  in  no  way 
broken ;  for  this  purpose  they  also  had  disciplinary 
power,  and  a  right  to  impose  considerable  fines,  and 
even  sometimes  inflict  corporal  punishment.  Finally, 
in  case  of  uncertainty,  they  had  to  give  judgment  about 
the  victory,  if  necessary,  by  a  majority  of  votes.  A 
combatant  who  was  not  satisfied  could  appeal  against 
their  decision  to  the  council  (pov\rf)  of  Olympia,  but 
he  could  not  afterwards  be  pronounced  victor;  the 
most  he  could  obtain,  should  it  appear  that  the  judges 
were  in  the  wrong,  was  their  condemnation  to  pay  a 
fine.  Under  the  judges  were  officials  who  helped  to 
maintain  order  and  carry  out  their  ordinances;  and 
all  the  attendants  present — and  this  must  have  been 
a  considerable  number,  owing  to  the  great  concourse 
of  spectators  and  combatants — were  under  their 
orders. 

We  can  form  some  general  idea  of  the  succession 
of  events  and  the  arrangement  of  festivities  during 
the  five  days  of  the  festival,  although  we  are 
not  fully  acquainted  with  all  the  details.  A  pre- 
liminary ceremony  was  the  entrance  of  the  embassies 
from  the  various  Hellenic  states.  All  the  states  con- 
sidered it  a  matter  of  importance  to  send  their  repre- 
sentatives equipped  with  as  much  splendour  as  possible, 
and  therefore  the  richest  people  were  always  chosen 
for  the  purpose.  Since  a  great  deal  of  splendour  was 
shown  by  these  delegates  at  the  festive  processions 
with  their  chariots  and  horses,  their  magnificent 
utensils,  etc.,  they  probably  held  a  grand  entry  on 
their  arrival,  and  thus  the  spectators,  at  the  very 
beginning  of  the  festival,  were  able  to  gratify  their 
love  of  fine  sights.  No  doubt  the  whole  proceeding 
began  with  a  sacrifice  to  Zeus,  hi  whose  honour  the 
games  were  held,  and  who  was  regarded  as  their 


360  GREEK  LIFE  AT  HOME. 

director.  Next,  the  umpires,  the  athletes  who  entered 
for  the  contests,  and  the  trainers  who  had  come  with 
them,  took  a  solemn  oath  in  the  court-house  at 
Olyinpia.  After  a  swine  had  been  sacrificed,  the 
competitors  had  to  swear  that  they  possessed  the  full 
rights  of  citizens,  that  they  had  fulfilled  all  the  con- 
ditions which  were  necessary  for  admission,  and  were 
ready  to  submit  to  the  regulations.  In  spite  of  this 
oath,  an  examination  into  their  claims  took  place ;  it 
was  not  only  necessary  to  prove  the  right  of  citizen- 
ship, but  also  the  appointed  training  for  the  contests 
by  the  athletic  diet  already  described,  and  on  this 
account  the  presence  of  the  trainers  was  desirable,  if 
not  indispensable,  at  the  examination  and  oath.  The 
horses  for  the  races  were  also  examined.  It  is  un- 
certain whether  the  lots  to  determine  the  groups  of 
competitors  were  drawn  on  this  first  day.  The  draw- 
ing was  preceded  by  a  prayer  to  Zeus  Moiragetes, 
the  Director  of  Destiny ;  then  the  charioteers  drew  lots 
for  their  places  at  starting,  and  the  others  for  their 
order  of  entry.  The  runners  were  divided  into  groups, 
probably  of  four ;  the  lot  decided  the  order  hi  which 
they  were  to  follow  one  another ;  and  the  victors  in 
these  races  had  then  to  run  once  more  for  the  prize. 
This  however  was  probably  only  the  case  with  the 
single  and  double  course,  since  it  is  not  likely  that 
there  were  so  many  competitors  for  the  more  difficult 
long  course  and  the  race  in  full  panoply^  Wrestlers, 
boxers,  and  pancratiasts  drew  lots  from  an  urn,  hi 
which  small  lots,  of  which  a  pair  was  marked  with 
the  same  letters,  were  thrown;  each  competitor  drew 
out  one.  Those  who  drew  the  same  letters  had  to 
fight  together ;  the  victors  then  fought  afresh.  If  there 
were  more  than  two  victors,  they  probably  drew  lots 
again  hi  the  same  way.  At  last  there  was  only  one  paii 


RTBLIC  FESTIVALS.  361 

left,  of  which  one  was  victor  in  the  whole  contest  It 
somet.imes  happened  that  when  these  lots  were  drawn 
the  number  of  combatants  was  unequal,  and  thus  one 
was  left  without  an  opponent.  He  was  called  the 
third  combatant  (fye&pos),  and  it  was  a  very  lucky 
thing  to  draw  this  lot.  Of  course,  it  would  be  a  very 
unusual  piece  of  luck  for  one  person  to  be  third  com- 
batant at  all  the  drawings,  and  thus  be  able  at  last  to 
meet,  with  his  strength  unbroken,  an  opponent  who 
would  have  sustained  many  contests  already  ;  still,  to 
draw  this  lot  even  once  was  to  have  a  distinct  ad- 
vantage. There  was,  of  course,  a  certain  amount  of 
unfairness  connected  with  it,  but  they  seem  to  have 
found  no  other  way  out  of  the  dilemma  ;  still,  in  most 
cases,  when  the  victors  and  the  third  combatant 
drew  afresh,  it  might  be  left  to  chance  to  see  that  one 
person  was  not  too  highly  favoured.  Sometimes  a 
competitor  was  lucky  enough  to  obtain  a  wreath 
without  any  contest  at  all ;  for  instance,  if  only  two 
had  entered  for  a  particular  contest,  and  one  of  them 
did  not  appear  in  time  or  abandoned  the  fight.  Many 
celebrated  athletes  could  obtain  a  prize  thus  by  the 
mere  terror  of  their  names. 

The  gymnastic  and  equestrian  competitions  con- 
tinued from  the  second  to  the  fourth  day;  probably 
the  boys  contended  on  the  second,  the  men  on  the 
third  and  fourth  days.  We  know  little  about  the 
order  of  events ;  still,  it  is  probable  that  on  the  third 
day  the  racing  took  place  first,  and  in  this  order — 
long,  single,  and  double  course,  then  wrestling,  boxing, 
i\nd  pane  ration;  on  the  fourth  day  the  equestrian 
contests,  the  pentathlon,  and,  last  of  all,  the  race  in 
lull  panoply.  There  would  then  be  several  changes  of 
1  cality,  since  the  equestrian  contests  took  place  in 
tiie  Hippodrome ;  the  races,  pentathlon,  and  other 
M* 


362  GREEK  LIFE  AT  1HOME 

gymnastic  sports  in  the  Stadium.  T.  ere  was,  of  course, 
a  gymnasium  at  Olympia,  but  this  could  not  contain 
the  multitude  of  spectators  as  well  as  the  Stadium, 
and,  therefore,  the  wrestling  school  and  gymnasium  at 
Olympia  were  used  exclusively  for  the  previous  train- 
ing of  the  competitors  who  came  there  for  the  contests. 
On  the  last  day  the  prizes  were  distributed.  The  prize, 
as  is  well  known,  was  the  simplest  possible — a  mere 
wreath  of  olive,  which  a  boy,  both  whose  parents 
must  be  alive,  according  to  the  old  tradition,  cut 
with  a  golden  knife  from  a  wild  olive  tree  in  the 
Grove  of  Altis.  Another  outward  token  of  victory  was 
the  palm  branch  granted  to  the  victor,  and,  in  con- 
sequence, the  palm  as  a  token  of  victory  often  appears 
in  the  statues  of  the  Olympic  conquerors.  In  olden 
times  the  wreaths  to  be  distributed  were  placed  on  a 
brazen  tripod ;  but  Kolotes,  a  pupil  of  Pheidias,  con- 
structed a  magnificent  table  of  gold  and  ivory  for  the 
purpose,  which  was  usually  kept  in  the  temple  of  Hera. 
It  was  the  duty  of  one  of  the  judges  to  crown  the  head 
of  the  victor  with  the  wreath  after  it  had  been  previously , 
surrounded  by  a  woollen  fillet.  During  this  solemn 
act  the  herald  announced  the  name  of  the  victor, 
as  well  as  of  his  father  and  his  native  city.  The 
importance  attributed  by  the  ancients  to  the  victory 
in  the  Olympic  games  was  such  that  this  proud 
moment,  when  the  victor  received  his  reward  amid 
tho  applause  of  the  whole  people,  and,  as  it  were, 
before  the  eyes  of  all  Greece,  was  a  sufficient  com- 
pensation for  all  the  troubles  and  difficulties  involved 
hi  the  preparation  for  the  contest.  Still,  there  were 
many  other  honours  which  fell  to  his  lot,  both  ID 
Olympia  and  at  home  in  his  own  country. 

After  the  name  of  the  victor  had  been  announced, 
sacrifices  and  banquets  took  place.     It  is  not  certain 


PUBLIC    FESTIVALS.  363 

whether  the  great  sacrifice  of  the  Elians,  a  hecatomb 
offered  to  Zeus  as  the  supreme  director  of  the  contests, 
took  place  at  the  conclusion  of  the  festival,  or  at  the 
beginning  ;  in  any  case,  numerous  sacrifices  of  thanks- 
giving were  offered  by  the  victors  and  also  by  the 
delegates  sent  from  other  states.  Very  often  the 
victor's  sacrifice  was  combined  with  that  of  his  rountry- 
men;  for  the  state  to  which  the  conqueror  belonged 
considered  itself  honoured  by  his  victory,  and  it  was 
the  duty  of  the  delegates  to  exhibit  as  much  splendour 
as  possible  at  the  sacrifice  as  well  as  at  the  procession 
connected  with  it.  These  solemn  processions,  which 
made  the  last  day  of  the  feast  a  specially  magnificent 
one,  were  accompanied  by  flutes  and  citharas,  and, 
perhaps,  also  by  the  singing  of  choruses.  They  probably 
marched  at  first  round  the  altars,  while  the  flames  of 
the  sacrifices  were  burning  on  them,  and  afterwards 
touched  at  all  the  sacred  places  near  the  holy  Altis. 

In  the  afternoon  a  great  banquet,  given  by  the 
Elians  to  the  victors,  united  them  all  in  the  town  hall 
(•jrpvravelov) ;  but  even  this  was  not  the  end  of  the 
festivities,  foi  feasting  continued  in  the  evening  and 
far  into  the  night  at  entertainments  given  by  the 
victors  to  their  relations  and  friends,  who  had  hurried 
to  the  spot.  These  were  more  or  less  magnificent 
according  to  the  means  of  the  givers,  though  some- 
times the  state  to  which  they  belonged  bore  a  part 
of  the  expenses.  These  festive  gatherings  were  also 
honoured  by  music  and  song,  and  it  was  on  these 
occasions  that  the  songs  of  victory  (emvueta),  specially 
composed  in  praise  of  the  victor  and  his  family,  were 
often  sung,  along  with  old  songs,  supposing  it  to  have 
been  possible  in  this  short  interval  to  write,  compose, 
and  study  one  of  these  hymns  of  victory.  Most  of  the 
odes,  especially  those  of  Pindar,  which  have  come  down 


364  GREEK  LIFE  AT  HOME 

to  us,  were  not  performed  on  these  occasions,  but  at 
the  festivities  held  in  honour  of  the  victor  in  his  own 
country,  which  were  often  celebrated  there  from  year 
to  year. 

Herewith  the  official  programme  of  the  festivities 
came  to  an  end,  but  there  was  no  lack  of  further 
entertainment;  for  the  opportunity  of  appearing 
before  so  great  a  number  of  their  countrymen,  and 
thus  attaining  sudden  fame,  was  a  very  attractive 
one  for  poets  and  writers,  who  in  those  days  were 
little  assisted  by  the  bookselling  trade.  The  custom 
of  holding  lectures  or  reciting  poems  before  the 
assembled  people  originated  in  the  5th  century, 
when  it  is  said  to  have  been  introduced  by  Herodotus, 
who  read  aloud  a  portion  of  his  history  at  Olympia, 
though  this  story  is  not  entirely  removed  from  doubt 
It  is,  however,  a  fact  that  from  that  tune  onwards 
recitations  of  this  kind  became  commoner;  thus 
Gorgias  the  Sophist,  and  Hippias  the  Elian,  held 
long  discourses  here;  and,  similarly,  Prodicus  and 
Anaximenes,  Lysias,  Isocrates,  etc.,  lectured  at 
Olympia;  and  in  later  times  this  was  a  frequent 
occurrence.  Occasionally,  though  less  often,  works 
of  art  were  here  exposed  to  view;  thus,  a  painter, 
Aetion,  exhibited  his  picture  of  the  marriage  of  Alex- 
ander the  Great  and  Roxana,  and  the  astronomer, 
Oinopides,  of  Chios,  exhibited  a  brass  tablet  which 
was  to  explain  a  new  method  of  calculating  the 
time,  discovered  by  him.  This  last,  however,  turned 
out  a  failure.  The  publicity  of  the  Olympic  festival 
was  also  used  hi  other  ways.  Important  decrees 
relating  to  solemn  pledges,  treaties  among  states, 
mutual  acknowledgment  of  meritorious  actions,  de- 
cisions to  confer  crowns,  or  other  matters  of  import- 
ance, which  it  was  desirable  to  bring  into  universal 


PUBLIC   FESTIVALS.  865 

notice  as  soon  as  possible,  were  proclaimed  by  the 
solemn  voice  of  the  herald  and  then  graven  in 
bronze  or  stone,  and  set  up  in  the  Altis. 

Every  free  man  might  be  present  at  the  contests 
and  other  festivities,  provided  his  means  permitted 
him  to  defray  the  expenses  of  the  journey  and  of 
a  stay  in  the  festive  city.  Naturally  the  greater 
number  of  the  spectators  came  from  the  neigh- 
bouring states  of  the  Peloponnesus;  but,  still,  many 
came  very  long  distances.  So  great  was  the 
interest  roused  by  these  contests  that  people  from 
all  classes  came  to  view  them ;  and  even  men  of  the 
highest  intellectual  eminence  took  pleasure  in  them. 
Statesmen  and  generals,  such  as  Themistocles,  Cimon, 
Philopoemen;  philosophers,  such  as  Thales,  Chiron, 
Pythagoras,  Socrates,  Plato  ;  orators,  such  as  Gorgias, 
Lysias,  Demosthenes;  poets,  such  as  Pindar,  Simon- 
ides,  Avere  among  the  spectators ;  and  though 
some  of  the  poets,  especially  Euripides,  and  philo- 
sophers were  inclined  to  criticise  rather  severely  the 
value  of  the  performances  at  Olympia,  yet  these 
were  but  isolated  opinions,  and  in  no  way  tended  to 
diminish  the  popularity  of  the  games  or  the  glory  of 
the  victors  in  the  eyes  of  the  general  public.  This 
interest  was  revealed  by  the  endurance  with  which 
the  spectators  continued  to  watch  the  games,  in  spite 
of  the  fact  that  they  took  place  in  the  very  hottest 
season,  and  lasted  for  the  greater  part  of  the  day; 
from  early  morning,  when  they  went  to  the  Stadium 
in  order  to  secure  a  good  place,  till  late  in  the  after- 
noon, when  the  decision  was  given,  they  watched  and 
endured  the  heat,  dust,  crowding,  and  thirst,  either 
standing  or  squatting,  according  as  space  permitted, 
with  that  patience  and  endurance  of  which  only  the 
people  of  the  south  are  capable.  No  doubt  there 


366  GREEK  LIFE   AT  HOME. 

were  noisy  expressions  of  sympathy  during  the 
contests,  encouraging  or  mocking  cries,  applause 
and  sounds  of  sorrow,  since  all  feelings  are  ex- 
pressed in  a  violent  manner  by  southern  nations. 
Women  were  not  allowed  to  be  present  at  the  games. 
The  statement  that  the  maidens  of  Elis  were  an  ex- 
ception to  this  rule  is  scarcely  credible.  Those 
women  or  girls  who  had  come  to  the  festival  to 
accompany  competing  husbands,  sons,  or  brothers, 
had  to  remain  on  the  other  side  of  the  Alpheus.  In 
consequence  of  the  great  number  of  spectators,  inns 
and  lodging-houses  were  built  to  accommodate  those 
who  had  not,  like  the  sacred  envoys,  brought  their 
own  tents  with  them.  Moreover,  as  already  indicated, 
a  kind  of  fair  was  connected  with  the  Olympian  fes- 
tivities ;  traders,  with  all  manner  of  wares,  some  of 
them  objects  directly  connected  with  the  festival,  such 
as  fillets,  flowers,  food,  etc.,  and  other  useful  articles, 
set  up  their  booths  and  tents  ;  and,  thus,  along  with 
the  festival,  there  was  a  busy  commercial  activity, 
such  as  was  common  in  every  place  where  great 
crowds  of  people  met  together  at  fixed  times. 

The  games  performed  at  Delphi  in  honour  of 
Pythian  Apollo  bore  the  name  of  the  Great  Pythia,  to 
distinguish  them  from  the  Lesser  Pythia,  held  every 
year  at  Delphi,  and  also  from  the  festival  of  the  same 
name  celebrated  in  other  places.  This  festival,  which 
at  first  was  held  every  eight  years,  had  been  changed 
to  a  quadrennial  one  after  the  beginning  of  the  6th 
century  B.C.  ;  it  lasted  several  days,  and  gradually 
many  additions  were  made  to  the  original  con- 
tests. At  first  the  musical  competition,  which  com- 
prised cithara  and  flute  playing,  was  the  only  one ; 
in  later  times,  too,  it  was  the  principal  part  of  the 
festival,  but  after  the  example  of  the  Olympian  games, 


PUBLIC    FESTIVALS.  367 

gymnastic  and  equestrian  contests  were  also  added. 
A  general  truce  was  connected  with  the  Pythian 
games  as  well  as  with  the  Olympic,  and  this  lasted 
long  enough  to  enable  spectators  from  the  distant 
colonies  on  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  to  journey 
in  safety  to  Delphi  and  back.  The  chief  events  of 
the  festival  and  the  order  of  proceedings  wera  some- 
thing of  this  sort. 

A  great  sacrifice  to  the  three  gods,  Apollo,  Artemis, 
and  Leto,  called  Trittyes  probably  formed  the  in- 
troduction. Then  followed  an  important  part  of  the 
festival,  calculated  to  arouse  lively  interest  in  the 
public,  the  Pythian  Nomos,  the  subject  of  which 
was  the  celebrated  fight  with  the  dragon  Pytho  by 
Apollo.  Many  suggestions  have  been  made  about 
the  nature  of  this  performance.  On6  is  that 
the  fight  was  presented  in  dumb  show;  another 
that  it  was  a  song,  accompanied  by  instruments ; 
and,  again,  another  very  popular  theory  is  that  this 
Pythian  Nomos  was  a  concerto  of  flute  solos,  by 
means  of  which  various  stages  of  the  fight  with  the 
dragon  were  represented  in  tone  painting.  Probably 
the  most  important  situations  —  the  fight,  thanks- 
giving, and  hymn  of  victory — could  be  thus  repre- 
sented, and,  indeed,  they  must  have  attained  consider- 
able proficiency  in  tone  painting,  since  even  the 
gnashing  of  the  dragon's  teeth  was  musically  repre- 
sented. With  a  view  to  strengthening  these  effects, 
the  flute,  which  always  remained  the  chief  instrument, 
was  afterwards  reinforced  at  certain  places  by  trum- 
pets and  shepherds'  pipes.  This  Pythian  Nomos 
constituted  part  of  the  musical  contest,  which  was  of 
greater  importance  in  the  Pythian  games  than  the 
gymnastic  competition,  since  Apollo  was  essentially 
the  representative  of  the  musical  arts.  Besides  the 


368  GREEK   LIFE  AT  HOME. 

solo  flute  playing,  the  musical  competition  included 
songs  with  cithara  accompaniment,  and  at  first  also 
with  the  flute,  but  this  last  was  discontinued,  being 
regarded  as  too  sad  and  gloomy  ;  and,  instead,  cithara 
playing  without  song  was  introduced  in  the  musical 
contest.  It  was  only  in  much  later  times,  when 
troops  of  artists  were  called  in  to  make  the  festival 
more  splendid,  with  the  consent  of  the  officials  of  the 
land,  that  dramas  were  also  presented  at  the  Pythian 
games. 

We  know  but  little  of  the  gymnastic  contests 
which  gradually  found  a  place  in  the  Pythian  games. 
In  essentials  they  were  the  same  as  those  at  Olympia, 
but  the  double  course  and  the  lou£  course  for  boys 
were  also  added,  while  at  Olympia  these  two  contests 
were  only  open  to  men.  The  order  of  events,  too,  was 
different;  the  competitors  were  classed  according  to 
age,  and  each  class,  after  completing  its  own  contest?  ' 
was  able  to  rest  while  the  others  went  through  the  same 
exercise,  so  that  these  intervals  for  rest  enabled  the 
boys  to  perform  greater  feats  of  running  than  they 
could  at  Olympia,  where  they  had  to  enter  for  all 
their  contests  before  the  men's  turn  came  at  all.  To 
the  usual  gymnastic  sports  were  afterwards  added  the 
race  in  full  panoply  and  the  pancration  for  boys. 
Equestrian  competitions  were  early  introduced :  racing 
with  full-grown  horses,  with  four-horse  chariots,  and 
afterwards  with  two-horse  chariots ;  when  colts  wore 
introduced  at  Olympia  the  example  was  also  followed 
at  Delphi:  probably  the  events  followed  in  such  a 
way  that  the  musical  contest  was  connected  with  the 
acts  of  worship,  and  was  followed  by  the  gymnastic, 
and  this  by  the  equestrian  contests.  The  gymnastic 
sports  were  held,  at  the  time  of  Pindar,  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  the  ruined  city  Cirrha,  south  of  the 


PUBLIC    FESTIVALS  3G9 

mouth  of  the  Pleistos ;  afterwards  the  Delphic  Stadium 
was  to  the  north-west  of  the  city,  while  the  driving 
and  riding  races  took  place  in  the  old  Stadium  near 
the  ruined  city  of  Cirrha.  In  later  times  there  was 
also  a  theatre  for  the  performance  of  the  musical 
contests. 

Here,  as  at  Olympia,  punctual  attendance  was 
required  of  the  competitors;  those  who  entered  un- 
lawfully were  expelled  by  the  servants  of  the  Amphic- 
tyons,  who  were  entrusted  with  disciplinary  power. 
It  was  they  who  had  the  superintendence  of  the 
games,  as  well  as  the  right  of  judging.  Originally 
both  these  privileges  had  belonged  to  the  inhabitants 
of  Delphi ;  but  after  the  reorganisation  of  the  games 
in  the  year  586,  the  duties  of  superintendents  and 
judges  passed  to  the  Amphictyons,  or  to  officials 
appointed  by  them.  It  seems  that  we  must  dis- 
tinguish between  the  Amphictyonic  superintendents 
(eiripeXrfrai),  in  whose  hands  were  the  arrangement 
of  the  programme,  and  all  matters  of  expense, 
the  appointment  or  ratification  of  the  festive  officials, 
etc.  (ayMvoQea-ia),  and  the  real  umpires  (J3pa/3f)<;), 
who  had  themselves  to  make  the  most  important 
arrangements  for  the  contests,  such  as  assigning  the 
places  for  the  chariots  in  the  races  and  giving  deci- 
sions about  the  victory;  but  we  cannot  attain  any 
certainty  in  this  matter.  Sometimes,  towards  the 
end  of  the  age  of  Greek  freedom,  the  right  of  super- 
intendence was  conferred  on  princes — as,  for  instance 
on  Philip  of  Macedon — and  in  the  time  of  the  Empire 
it  was  not  unusual  for  a  rich  man  to  bear  the  expenses 
of  the  ceremony  wholly  or  in  great  part ;  though  even 
here  the  old  custom  was,  at  any  rate  externally, 
observed.  The  prizes  of  victory  were  originally  valu- 
able gifts,  tripods,  etc. ;  at  the  rearrangement  of  the 


370  GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 

games  the  custom  originated  of  giving,  instead,  a 
wreath,  as  was  done  at  Olympia,  made  of  laurel  sacred 
to  Apollo.  They  also  followed  the  example  of  Olympia 
in  introducing  lectures  and  recitations  by  historians 
and  poets;  thus  Gorgias  the  Sophist,  delivered  an 
oration  on  one  of  these  occasions.  A  very  im- 
portant part  of  the  festival  was  the  great  pro- 
cession (Tro/iTr?;),  in  which  ?trangers  who  came  to  the 
games,  embassies  with  their  dedicatory  offerings,  the 
officials  and  priests,  took  part;  and  besides  the  offer- 
ings, which  were  often  very  splendid,  valuable  treasures, 
usually  kept  in  the  treasuries,  were  exhibited  ;  costly 
weapons  and  armour,  splendid  garments  and  jewels, 
vases,  etc.,  were  exposed  to  view,  so  that  this  pro- 
cession, which  probably  marched  from  the  suburb 
Pylaea,  upwards  to  the  temple  of  Apollo,  must  have 
presented  a  very  varied  and  richly-coloured  picture. 
As  well  as  the  triple  sacrifice  already  mentioned,  there 
were  other  solemn  sacrifices,  among  them  a  hecatomb 
to  Apollo;  this  was,  of  course,  connected  with  the 
great  banquet,  at  which  there  was  no  lack  of  musicc.1 
entertainment. 

The  Isthmian  games,  the  third  of  the  great 
Hellenic  national  festival-s,  were  celebrated  on  the 
isthmus  of  Corinth,  in  the  sacred  pine  grove  of 
Poseidon,  where  a  hippodrome  and  a  stadium  for 
equestrian  and  gymnastic  contests  had  been  erected 
The  festival,  which  from  the  year  582  onwards,  be- 
came national  and  Hellenic,  took  place  every  two 
years,  in  the  first  and  third  years  of  an  Olympiad; 
it  consisted  of  musical,  gymnastic,  and  equestrian 
contests.  We  do  not  hear  of  any  differences  between 
these  games  and  those  at  Olympia,  and  we  may 
assume  that  there  were  the  usual  competitions  for 
men  and  boys;  in  addition  to  them  there  was  an 


PUBLIC    FESTIVALS.        .  371 

intermediate  class  of  the  beardless  ones  —  that  is, 
youths  (efyTjftoi).  Of  course,  there  was  a  universal 
truce  during  the  Isthmian  games,  and  numerous 
and  splendid  embassies  attended  it,  since  the 
site  between  two  seas  facilitated  attendance. 
The  arrangement  of  the  programme  fell  to  the 
Corinthians,  who  also  appointed  the  umpires,  prob- 
ably from  among  the  rich  and  respected  citizens. 
The  prize  of  victory  was  a  wreath  of  ivy,  for  which 
they  afterwards  substituted  one  of  pine,  and  this 
seems  to  have  been  still  the  custom  at  the  time  of 
Ibycus,  who,  as  Schiller  tells  us,  met  his  death  'on 
the  way  to  this  "  contest  of  chariots  and  song."  In 
the  later  period,  especially  in  the  Hellenistic  and 
Roman  times,  there  were  also  rhetorical  and  poetical 
recitations  at  the  Isthmian  games,  but  they  did  not 
form  a  part  of  the  musical  contest. 

The  Nemean  games  were  held  at  Argolis,  in 
a  valley  between  Cleonae  and  Phlius,  in  a  grove 
belonging  to  the  sanctuary  of  Zeus-Nemeios,  and  they 
did  not  attain  national  importance  till  the  year  573. 
These,  like  the  Isthmian  games,  were  held  every  two 
years,  in  the  second  and  fourth  years  of  an  Olympiad. 
The  contests  here  also  comprised  musical,  gymnastic, 
and  equestrian  competitions ;  we  are  incidentally  in- 
formed that  cithara  and  flute  players  appeared  in  the 
musical  contest.  We  have  no  information  about  the 
length  of  its  duration,  but  it  must  certainly  have 
lasted  for  several  days-.  The  Cleonaeans  were  for  a 
long  time  superintendents  and  umpires,  but  when  the 
Argives  gained  possession  of  the  Nemean  sanctuary 
they  also  claimed  this  privilege.  The  prize  of  victory 
here,  as  at  the  Isthmian  games,  was  a  wreath  of  ivy ; 
there  were  the  same  arrangements  for  a  universal  truce, 
and  visits  of  sacred  envoys,  as  at  other  great  festivals. 


372  .  GREEK  LIFE   AT   HOME. 

From  this  consideration  of  the  Hellenic  national 
celebrations  we  must  now  turn  specially  to  Athens, 
with  whose  festive  calendar  we  are  much  better  ac- 
quainted; but  we  must  content  ourselves  with  a  selec- 
tion from  among  the  most  important.  The  first  place 
is  due  to  the  greatest  festival  of  the  Athenians,  the 
Panathenaea  celebrated  in  the  first  month  of  the 
Athenian  calendar,  Hekatombaeon  (probably  our 
July).  We  must  distinguish  between  the  lesser  and 
the  greater  Panathenaea;  the  former  was  celebrated 
every  year ;  the  latter,  introduced  by  Peisistratus, 
every  four  years ;  the  real  difference  was  that,  at  the 
greater  Panathenaea  the  contests  were  more  splendid 
and  probably  lasted  a  longer  time.  The  festival  was 
held  in  honour  of  the  patron  goddess  in  the  ancient 
temple  of  Athene  Polias  ;  it  consisted  of  sacrifices  and 
competitions,  equestrian,  gymnastic,  and  also  musical. 
The  oldest  musical  contest  was  a  competition  between 
rhapsodists,  perhaps  introduced  by  Peisistratus.  The 
performances  of  the  rhapsodists  were  probably  chiefly 
concerned  with  the  Homeric  poems,  which  had  been 
collected  and  edited  at  the  command  of  Peisistratus, 
but  we  do  not  know  hi  what  way  they  contended  for 
the  prize ;  the  place  of  recitation  was  the  Odeon. 
Afterwards  the  Homeric  rhapsodies  fell  into  the  back- 
ground, when  Pericles  extended  the  musical  contests 
by  introducing  cithara  and  flute  playing  and  song. 
We  learn  from  the  inscriptions  that  songs  with  cithara 
accompaniment,  as  well  as  with  flute  accompaniment, 
were  usual,  and  they  also  speak  of  cyclic  choruses, 
that  is,  dithyrambs,  sung  by  choruses  while  circling 
round  the  altar  on  which  the  sacrifice  was  burning. 
The  prize  for  the  musical  contest  was  a  gold  wreath 
and  some  money.  The  gymnastic  contests  were  ar- 
ranged according  to  age  (boys,  youths,  men) ;  the 


PUBLIC   FESTIVALS.  373 

youngest  entered  first,  and  each  class  ended  its  com- 
petitions before  the  next  one  began.  Similarly  the 
competitions  advanced  from  easy  to^  difficult ;  they 
were  of  the  usual  kinds  already  described,  but  it  was 
only  the  men  from  whom  all  were  required.  Boys  and 
youths  in  the  earliest  period  entered  for  racing,  wrest- 
ling, and  boxing,  pancration,  and  pentathlon.  After- 
wards the  pentathlon  was  abandoned,  and  the  double 
and  long  course  introduced  instead,  though  probably 
the  requirements  for  these  were  reduced,  since  the 
usual  attainments  of  these  contests  would  have  been 
too  great  for  boys.  We  do  not  know  exactly  where 
the  gymnastic  competitions  took  place,  since  the 
Panathenaeic  Stadion  was  not  built  till  the  latter  half 
of  the  fourth  century.  Before  that  there  seems  to  have 
been  a  place  to.  the  west  of  the  Peiraeus,  where  both 
equestrian  and  gymnastic  contests  were  carried  on ; 
here,  too,  the  victors  were  proclaimed,  and  the  prizes 
conferred  on  them.  These  consisted  in  a  quantity  of 
oil  from  the  celebrated  olive-trees  of  Athene  in  the 
Academy,  and  this  was  drawn  into  earthen  amphoras, 
on  one  side  of  which  was  represented  the  image  of  the 
patron  goddess,  and  on  the  other  generally  a  scene 
from  the  gymnastic  competition.  Many  imitations  of 
these  amphoras  exist,  and  no  small  number  of  them 
have  come  down  to  us,  and  are  known  as  Panathanaeic 
prize  amphoras. 

There  were  several  events  peculiar  to  the  eques- 
trian contests  at  Athens.  Thus,  in  Attica  and  Boeotia 
chariot-jumping  was  a  popular  sport.  Besides  the 
charioteer  on  the  two- wheeled  car  there  was  a  second 
person  (a-Troftdrrjs),  who,  while  the  chariot  was  moving 
at  full  speed,  jumped  down  from  the  car  and  up  again, 
assisted  by  the  charioteer ;  this  performance  is  traced 
back  by  legend  to  the  time  of  Erichthonius.  There 


374  GREEK  LIFE  AT  HOME. 

were  also  martial  contests,  in  which  warriors  in  full 
panoply  stood  in  their  chariots;  and  also  races  of 
javelin- throwers,  who  aimed  at  a  fixed  goal  from  their 
running  horses  ;  but  these  sports  connected  with  the 
Panathanaea  are  known  to  us  only  by  casual  allusions, 
and  not  by  accurate  description.  Here,  as  elsewhere, 
we  learn  from  the  inscriptions  that  the  usual  kinds  of 
racing  took  place,  namely,  with  four  horses,  and  after- 
wards, too,  with  colts,  as  well  as  riding  races.  Here, 
as  in  the  gymnastic  contests,  the  prize  consisted  in 
jars  of  oil ;  in  both  cases  the  first  prize  was  generally 
five  times  the  value  of  the  second. 

To  the  festivities  of  the  Panathanaea  belonged  also 
a  performance  of  the  Pyrrhic  war  dance  (Trvppixn) 
which  originated  at  Sparta,  and  was  probably  intro- 
duced at  Athens  at  the  time  of  Solon  and  Peisistratus. 
In  later  times  they  distinguished  three  kinds,  accord- 
ing to  age.  The  various  classes,  clad  in  magnificent 
armour,  combined  together  in  bands  and  performed  a 
dance  to  the  music  of  the  flute,  which  partook  of  the 
double  nature  of  choregraphic  and  military  movements. 
A  still  extant  relief  from  the  Acropolis,  set  up  by  a 
choragus  who  had  won  the  prize  (rich  citizens  under- 
took the  equipment  of  the  Pyrrhic  choruses  as  a 
public  service  or  liturgy),  presents  a  number  of  youth- 
ful dancers  performing  a  measured  dance  in  light 
helmets,  and  holding  their  shield  in  their  left  hand, 
but  without  any  clothing ;  they  are  in  two  divi- 
sions ;  the  choragus  stands  superintending  them  in  a 
long  chiton  (as  festive  garment)  and  himation.  Wo 
do  not  know  how  the  victory  of  a  Pyrrhic  chorus  was 
decided.  The  prize  of  victory  was  an  ox. 

Another  contest  peculiar  to  the  Panathenaea  was 
a  muster  of  men  (evavSpla).  Like  the  dramatic  repre- 
sentations, the  torch -race,  and  the  Pyrrhic  dance,  this 


PUBLIC    FESTIVALS.  375 

was  a  liturgy,  that  is,  a  voluntary  service  performed 
by  a  rich  citizen.  It  was  his  duty  to  select  the  hand- 
somest and  strongest  men  of  his  tribe,  to  clothe  and 
equip  them,  and  present  them  at  the  festival ;  that 
tribe  which,  in  the  opinion  of  the  judges,  made  the 
best  impression,  received  the  prize.  This  curious 
custom  originated  after  the  expulsion  of  the  Peisistra- 
tidae,  since  they  would  not  have  been  permitted, 
during  the  tyranny,  to  bring  forward  the  armed 
citizens  in  this  manner.  Another  liturgy  was  the 
torch-race  (Xapirafcofyopia),  which  was  superintended 
by  the  gymnasiarchs ;  the  victor  in  this  contest 
received  a  water-jar.  The  contests  of  the  Panathenaea 
were  concluded  by  a  regatta,  which  took  place  at  the 
Peiraeus.  Here,  again,  it  was  not  individuals,  but 
tribes,  that  competed  for  the  prize,  which  was  not 
inconsiderable,  since  the  victorious  tribe  received  300 
drachmae,  and  money  for  a  festive  banquet. 

The  expenses  of  these  various  contests,  if  they  did 
not  happen  to  be  voluntary  services,  were  defrayed  from 
the  treasury  of  Athene  Polias  ;  the  sacrifices,  in  par- 
ticular the  hecatomb  offered  to  the  goddess  at  the  greater 
Panathenaea,  were  provided  by  the  superintendents  of 
sacrifice  (lepoTroioi),  appointed  as  the  ten  representa- 
tives of  the  ten  tribes,  but  there  were  sometimes 
special  subscriptions  for  the  purpose,  and,  at  the  great 
festivals  at  any  rate,  the  Attic  client  cities  sent  their 
contributions  to  the  sacrifices,  apparently  each  one 
cow  and  two  sheep.  The  hecatomb  was  offered  on 
the  chief  day  of  the  feast ;  another  sacrifice  was  per- 
formed to  Athene- Hygeia,  and  a  third  on  the  Areo- 
pagus, but  we  do  not  know  when  these  took  place. 
nor  whether  they  w-ere  also  offered  at  the  lessei 
Panathenaea. 

We  have  only  a  general  notion  of  the  order  of  the 


376  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

festivities.  They  began  with  the  contests,  which 
lasted  several  days,  taking  the  musical  contest  first, 
which  was  followed  by  the  gymnastic,  and  this  again 
by  the  equestrian.  With  these  were  probably  con- 
nected the  Pyrrhic  dance  and  the  muster  of  men. 
Then  came  the  chief  day  of  all,  the  glory  of  the 
festival,  introduced  the  evening  before  by  a  festivity 
combined  with  a  torch-race,  and  lasting  far  into  the 
night  (wtumrxk).  At  sunrise  began  the  great  pro- 
cession which  was  peculiar  to  the  greater  Panathenaea. 
Here  the  goddess  received  her  splendid  robe,  which 
was  renewed  every  four  years,  and  artistically  worked 
by  the  Attic  women  and  maidens,  so  as  to  represent 
the  battle  of  the  gods  and  giants.  This  procession,  of 
which  a  wonderfully  idealised  representation  has  come 
down  to  us  in  the  friezes  of  the  Cella  of  the  Par- 
thenon, combined  all  the  chief  splendour  and  glory  of 
Athens,  all  the  proud  youth  and  fair  beauty  of  women. 
In  it  marched  priests  and  prophets,  archons,  and  the 
treasurers  of  Athene,  the  superintendents  of  sacrifice, 
generals,  envoys  from  the  Attic  colonies,  with  their 
dedicatory  offerings,  and  other  delegates  sent  to  the 
feast.  Behind  these  dignified  men  followed  beautiful 
maidens,  carrying  sacrificial  vessels,  censers,  etc. ;  then 
came  the  resident  foreigners  (/ierot/cot),  with  flat  dishes 
filled  with  honey-cakes,  fruits,  and  other  sacrificial 
offerings,  and  jars  containing  the  wine  required  for 
the  sacrifices ;  their  daughters  carried  sunshades  and 
scats  for  the  daughters  of  Attic  citizens.  Next  came 
the  numerous  herds  of  cows  and  sheep  for  the  sacri- 
fices, accompanied  by  drovers.  These  were  followed 
by  the  Attic  citizens,  venerable  old  men  and  men  in 
the  prime  of  life,  carrying  their  knotty  sticks  and  olive 
branches  in  their  hands;  then  came  the  four-horse 
chariots,  which  had  entered  for  the  contests  of  the 


PUBLIC  FESTIVALS.  377 

previous  days.  The  greater  part  of  the  procession 
was  taken  up  by  the  cavalry,  in  which  appeared  the 
citizens  who  served  on  horseback  in  the  army,  as  well 
as  other  owners  of  fine  horses  ;  the  fondness  for  horse- 
rearing  peculiar  to  Attica  made  this  part  of  the  pro- 
cession especially  large  and  splendid.  There  were  also 
the  heavy-armed  infantry  under  the  command  of 
their  officers,  and  the  musicians,  who  played  during 
the  march  on  their  instruments — flutes  and  citharas ; 
of  course,  the  victors  in  the  various  competitions  took 
part  in  the  procession,  though  probably  each  walked 
with  the  members  of  his  own  tribe.  The  most  con- 
spicuous place  was  occupied  by  the  robe  of  the 
goddess,  which,  at  any  rate  after  the  beginning  of 
the  fourth  century,  was  suspended  like  a  sail  on  the 
mast  of  a  ship,  running  on  rollers,  and  spread  out 
in  such  a  way  that  all  might  admire  the  splendid 
workmanship. 

This  endless  procession  moved  from  the  Kera- 
meikos  to  the  market-place,  then  eastwards  to  the 
Eleusinion,  north  of  the  Acropolis,  and  round  this  to 
the  western  ascent  of  the  citadel,  where  the  ship  halted, 
and  the  robe  was  taken  off  in  order  to  be  carried  in 
procession  to  the  temple  of  Athene  Polias,  the  Erech- 
thaeum.  Here  the  hecatomb  was  offered  on  the  great 
altar  in  front  of  the  temple,  as  well  as  the  sacrifices  of 
the  Attic  clients.  A  plentiful  banquet  concluded  this 
chief  day  of  the  festival,  for  the  meat  sacrificed  was 
divided  among  the  people,  being  distributed  among 
all  the  demes  separately,  who  specially  told  off  a 
number  of  members  to  receive  their  share.  The  meals 
took  place  also  according  to  demes.  The  after-cele- 
bration at  the  Peiraeus  consisted  in  the  regatta  already 
mentioned.  We  cannot  tell  how  long  the  whole  festi- 
val of  the  greater  Panathenaea  lasted ;  opinions  varv 


378  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

between  six  and  nine  days,  according  as  a  longer  01 
shorter  period  is  assumed  for  the  various  competitions. 
The  general  direction  of  the  procession  and  the  sacri- 
fices, as  well  as  of  the  night  festivity,  was  under  the 
control  and  superintendence  of  the  annual  superin- 
tendents of  sacrifice;  while  ten  judges  (u0Xo0erat), 
appointed  for  a  period  of  four  years,  undertook  tha 
direction  of  the  contests. 

The  annual  Sacred  Festival  of  the  Eleusinia 
must  be  distinguished  from  the  lesser  Eleusinia 
celebrated  at  Agrae  in  spring.  It  took  place  in 
the  month  of  Boedromion,  about  September,  in 
honour  of  Demeter  of  Eleusis.  This  was  a  celebration 
of  the  mysteries,  and,  therefore,  no  national  festival, 
but  still  the  number  of  the  initiated  was  so  great,  and 
the  mysteries  were  renowned  so  far  even  beyond  the 
bounds  of  Attica,  that  it  might  be  regarded  as 
Hellenic,  especially  as  the  holding  of  the  mysteries 
was  announced  in  the  neighbouring  states  by 
special  envoys  or  heralds,  whose  office  was  hereditary 
in  certain  families,  and  a  general  truce  prevailed  during 
the  celebration.  The  whole  festival  consisted  of  two 
parts,  of  which  the  first  was  held  at  Athens,  the 
second  at  Eleusis.  It  began  with  a  general  assembly, 
of  which  we  only  know  that  it  was  probably  a  noisy 
procession,  such  as  was  very  common  at  the  celebration 
of  mysteries.  Another  feature  of  the  beginning  of  the 
festival  were  the  public  addresses  to  the  community, 
delivered  in  the  Stoa  Poildle  (Painted  Porch)  at 
Athens,  where  the  Hierophant,  the  chief  priest  of  the 
Eleusinian  sanctuaries,  and  one  of  the  chief  priests 
in  Attica,  and  the  torch-bearer  (SaSou^o?),  another 
Eleusinian  official,  acquainted  the  candidates  for 
initiation  with  the  arrangement  of  the  festival  and 
the  conditions  on  which  participation  in  the  cere- 


PUBLIC   FESTIVALS.      .  379 

mony  depended.  It  was  the  duty  of  the  Initiators 
(nvo-rayaryotytosee  that  the  numerous  people  assembled 
really  fulfilled  these  conditions ;  these  were  not  officials 
but  private  people  who  had  passed  through  all  the 
degrees  of  initiation,  and  were  acquainted  with  all  the 
rites;  and  foreigners  who  attended  the  mysteries  <vere 
obliged  to  prove  their  initiation  in  the  first  place  to 
these.  Either  on  this  day  or  the  next  ensued  that 
ceremony  which  received  its  name  from  the  cry,  "  To 
the  sea,  ye  Mystae  ! "  when  the  whole  community  de- 
scended to  the  sea  coast  in  order  to  purify  themselves 
and  the  sacrificial  animals,  which  on  this  occasion  were 
swine,  in  the  sea  water  for  the  impending  sacrifices. 
Sometimes,  if  a  visitor  to  the  contests  was  conscious  of 
special  and  numerous  acts  of  wrongdoing,  this  purifi- 
cation was  repeated  several  times,  and  the  efficacy 
further  ensured  by  fasting  for  nine  days — that  is,  re- 
fraining from  food  during  the  time  between  sunrise 
and  sunset.  On  the  following  days  sacrifices  were 
offered,  especially  the  great  Thankoffering  (crwnjpia), 
brought  by  the  superintendents  of  the  mysteries  to 
Demeter  and  Kora  and  the  other  gods,  probably  in  the 
town  of  Eleusinia.  Another  sacrifice  offered  by  a  town 
was  the  Epidauria,  which  was  said  to  have  been 
founded  in  honour  of  Aesculapius,  who  arrived  belated 
from  Epidaurus.  We  are  not  acquainted  with  the 
place  of  this  ceremony,  nor  with  the  tune  or  other 
circumstances  connected  with  it ;  the  fourth  and  the 
fifth  days  of  the  festival  have  been  suggested.  Next 
followed  the  main  part  of  the  festival,  the  great  pro- 
cession which  escorted  lacchus,  the  sacred  child  of  the 
gods,  from  Athens  to  Eleusis.  In  the  course  of  the 
day  the  participants  in  the  procession,  who  often 
numbered  several  thousand,  assembled  at  various  parts 
of  the  city,  and  were  drawn  up  in  order  in  the  Agora 


380  GREEK  LIFE  AT  HOME. 

and  the  Kerameikos.  The  priests  and  officials,  as  well 
as  the  whole  band  of  Mystae,  were  decked  with  myrtle 
and  ivy  leaves,  and  carried  ears  of  corn  and  agri- 
cultural implements  in  their  hands,  as  well  as 
torches,  for  they  did  not  reach  Eleusis  before  night- 
fall. The  leader  of  fche  procession  was  laochus  him- 
self, though,  at  the  same  time,  he  was  led.  His  sacred 
image  was  fetched,  along  with  the  temple  utensils, 
from  the  sanctuary  of  lacchus,  and  placed  on  a  car, 
accompanied  by  attendants  ('latcxasywyot),  at  the 
head  of  the  procession,  which  set  out  from  the 
Kerameikos  to  the  gate  known  as  Dipylon  amid 
loud  shouts  of  "lacchus,"  and  through  this  began 
its  long  journey  along  the  sacred  road  to  Eleusis. 
The  procession  moved  on,  singing  a  song  especially 
composed  for  it,  as  was  believed,  by  the  god  himself, 
accompanied  by  dancing  and  other  ceremonies.  The 
journey  lasted  four  hours,  and,  in  consequence  of  its 
length,  rich  women  used  to  ride  in  carriages  until  the 
orator  Lycurgus  forbade  this  by  a  special  law.  During 
this  long  march  they  stopped  to  worship  at  various 
sanctuaries  on  the  way,  and  also  entertained  each  other 
with  jokes,  such  as  were  customary  at  the  festivals  of 
Demeter  and  Dionysus  :  at  the  Kephisos  especially 
there  was  jesting  and  mockery.  At  the  fountain  of 
Kallichoros  dances  and  games  were  carried  on  by 
torchlight.  Of  course,  all  this  detained  the  procession 
longer  than  the  mere  length  of  the  journey  would  have 
required,  so  that  after  the  arrival  at  Eleusis,  when 
the  image  of  the  god  had  been  put  in  its  place,  the 
pilgrims  required  rest  and  refreshment  before  going 
on  to  the  remainder  of  the  festival. 

The  rites  at  Eleusis  also  lasted  several  days. 
Besides  solemn  sacrifices  and  the  festive  banquets 
connected  with  them,  there  was  the  ceremony  of 


PUBLIC   FESTIVALS.  381 

seeking  the  Maiden  (/copi?)  and  the  sacred  representa- 
tions. The  former  was  an  imitation  of  the  sad 
wanderings  of  Demeter,  when  seeking  her  daughter, 
who  had  bsen  stolen  from  her ;  the  Mystae  ran  about 
with  torches  in  the  white  raiments  of  the  Eleusinian 
sanctuaries,  and  frequent  jokes,  some  of  a  coarse 
description,  reminded  them  that  Demeter  in  her 
wanderings  had  been  similarly  cheered  in  her  deep 
sorrow  by  the  coarse  jests  of  her  maid  lambe.  The 
mystae  also  imitated  the  goddess  in  drinking  a 
strengthening  potion  (tcvicecov),  which,  according  to 
a  legend,  the  goddess  drank  at  Eleusis  after  her 
long  fast.  The  main  feature,  however,  was  the  per- 
formance, on  a  stage  in  the  sanctuary,  of  the  mysterious 
sacred  dramas  which  presented  the  secret  doctrines 
of  the  Eleusinian  mysteries  to  the  new  initiates,  and 
also  brought  them  clearly  before  the  eyes  of  those 
who  had  been  already  initiated.  We  must  not,  how- 
ever, suppose  that  all  were  present  at  the  same  repre- 
sentations. It  was,  in  fact,  here  that  the  difference  of 
degrees  required  different  representations ;  b.eginners, 
among  whom  there  were  some  not  far  removed  from 
the  age  of  childhood  were  only  admitted  to  repre- 
sentations corresponding  to  the  ordinary  legends  of 
Demeter  and  Persephone,  while  the  highest  degrees, 
which  were  granted  only  to  those  of  advanced  years, 
went  beyond  these  popular  presentations,  and  repre- 
sented the  new-born  lacchus  reunited  in  bliss  with 
Persephone  and  Demeter.  On  these  occasions  even 
the  highest  dignitaries  of  the  Eleusinia  did  not 
scorn  to  appear  as  actors;  the  Hierophant  as  the 
Demiurgos,  the  leader  of  the  initiates  as  Helios, 
the  altar  priest  as  Selene,  the  herald  (lepoKfjpvi;)  as 
Hermes,  etc.  These  dramas,  which  fully  occupied 
the  eighth  and  ninth  days,  thus  concluded  the  chief 


382  GREEK  LIFE   AT   HOME. 

part  of  the  ceremony.  The  last  act  of  worship  was 
to  take  two  earthen  vessels  filled  with  water,  as  was 
done  at  funerals,  and  pour  them  out  to  east  and  west 
amid  mystic  words  (TrX^ytto^oa/,).  Then  followed  some 
days  occupied  with  entertainments  of  all  kinds — 
gyn  nistic  contests,  national  games,  song  and  dance, 
and  in  later  times  also  scenic  representations. 

The  festival  of  the  Thesmophoria,  held  in 
Pyanepsion  (October),  was  in  honour  of  Demeter 
alone;  it  lasted  five  days,  and  only  women  might 
take  part  in  it.  These  women  had  to  undergo  a 
solemn  preparation  of  nine  days,  during  which  they 
kept  apart  from  their  husbands,  and  purified  them- 
selves in  various  wa}Ts.  After  this  they  went  to 
Halimus,  the  scene  of  the  Thesmophoria,  not  in  a 
long  procession,  but  in  small  groups  and  at  night- 
time. The  comic  side  of  the  Deineter  festivals  was 
visible  here  also:  those  who  went  alone  met  each 
other  on  the  way,  and  demanded  and  gave  tokens  of 
recognition  in  jest,  amid  much  laughter,  which 
became  excessive  if,  as  sometimes  happened,  a  man 
fell  into  their  hands.  At  Halimus,  in  the  sanctuary 
of  the  Thesmophoria,  the  mysteries  took  place  by 
night ;  the  day  was  occupied  with  purifying  baths  in 
the  sea,  and  playing  and  dancing  on  the  shore.  After 
this  had  gone  on  for  a  day  or  a  day  and  a  half,  the  women 
set  out  again  for  Athens,  this  time  in  -a  long  pro- 
cession, carrying  the  laws  of  Demeter,  the  Thesmoi 
whence  the  festival  took  its  name,  hi  caskets  on  the 
head  of  sacred  women,  and  the  festival  was  then 
continued  at  Athens,  either  in  the  Thesmophorion  of 
the  town  or  in  that  of  Peiraeus.  This  further  celebra- 
tion occupied  two  days,  besides  the  day  of  return ; 
first  came  the  day  of  "  fasting,"  so-called  because  on 
this  day  the  women  sat  in  deep  mourning  on  the 


PUBLIC   FESTIVALS.  383 

ground  and  took  no  food,  probably  singing  dirges  and 
observing  other  customs  common  in  case  of  a  death ; 
they  also  sacrificed  swine  to  the  infernal  gods.  The 
third  day  (/caXkisyeveia)  bore  a  more  cheerful  character. 
Its  name,  signifying  "  the  birth  of  fair  children,"  seems 
to  refer  to  Demeter,  who  was  assumed  to  be  appeased 
and  who  gave  the  blessing  of  fair  children  to  women. 
This  day  was  occupied  with  sacrifices,  dances,  and 
merry  games,  of  which  we  know  very  little.  At  all 
these  festivals  the  presence  of  men  was  most  sternly 
forbidden ;  only  those  women  who  were  full  citizens 
might  take  part,  and  probably  none  who  were  un- 
married. 

There  were  various  smaller  festivals  which  we 
must  pass  over,  and  turn  to  the  festivals  of  Dionysus, 
which  had  an  important  influence  on  life  in  Greece, 
as  well  as  on.  its  literature  and  art.  There  were  four 
of  these  every  year  at  Athens ;  in  the  month  of 
Poseidon  (February),  the  country  Dionysia,  called  also 
"the  lesser,"  took  place.  Naturally  this  was  a  vine 
festival,  as  would  result  from  the  character  of  the  god  ; 
but  the  common  opinion,  that  it  was  to  celebrate  the 
vintage,  is  open  to  many  objections,  especially  since 
the  time  of  the  feast  seems  too  late  for  the  vintage. 
It  is  more  probable  that  the  new  wine  was  then  tasted 
for  the  first  time.  This  festival  was  not  connected 
with  any  special  place ;  country  Dionysia  were  cele- 
brated in  every  village,  and  not  only  in  Attica,  but 
everywhere  in  Greece  where  vines  were  cultivated, 
and  it  always  bore  the  character  of  a  cheerful  national 
feast  connected  with  fun  and  merry  frolic.  In  the 
"  Acharnians  "  of  Aristophanes  a  peasant  celebrates 
the  festival  alone  with  his  family;  it  begins  with 
prayer  and  a  procession  to  the  sacrifice,  in  which  the 
daughter,  as  basket-bearer  (xavrj^opos),  carries  the 


384  GREEK  LIFE   AT  HOME. 

basket  of  offerings  on  her  head ;  the  slave  with  the 
Phallus,  the  symbol  of  fertility  and  the  never  ex- 
tinct producing  power  of  the  earth,  next  follows ; 
and  the  master  of  the  house  sings  his  merry  phallic 
song,  while  his  wife  looks  on  at  the  procession  frctn 
the  roof  of  the  house.  What  was  done  here  on  a 
small  scale  by  a  single  family,  we  must  assume  was 
performed  on  a  larger  scale  in  the  real  ceremony 
by  all  the  assembled  villagers.  There  ware  also  other 
parts  of  the  festival,  especially  the  chorus,  which  stood 
round  the  altar  during  the  sacrifice  of  the  goat,  and 
praised  the  god  in  speech  and  song,  probably  also  in 
answering  refrain ;  they  sang  the  birth,  sufferings,  and 
death  of  Dionysus,  and  were  the  origin  of  the  dithy- 
ramb as  well  as  of  the  drama,  since  this  latter,  as  is 
well  known,  owes  its  origin  to  the  festivals  of  Dionysus. 
Often  there  were  real  dramatic  representations  at 
the  lesser  Dionysia ;  it  was  especially  the  custom 
for  strolling  actors  on  these  occasions  to  perform 
before  the  country  people  old  plays,  which  had  been 
already  represented  in  the  towns.  Among  the  other 
entertainments,  along  with  the  festive  processions, 
choruses,  and  banquets,  one  is  especially  worthy 
of  mention  (d<r/ea>Xta).  This  was  a  game  in  which  the 
young  people  of  the  village  hopped  about  on  greased 
wine  skins,  and  tried  to  push  each  other  down, 
while  the  falls  were  greeted  with  laughter  by  the 
bystanders;  those  who  succeeded  in  retaining  their 
place  received  prizes.  This  entertainment,  which 
may  be  set  on  a  par  with  our  own  running  in  sacks, 
was  customary,  too,  at  other  festivals  of  Dionysus. 

The  second  Athenian  festival  of  Dionysus  was 
peculiar  to  Athens,  but  was  probably  only  one  of  the 
country  Dionysia  transferred  to  the  town;  it  was 
called  Lenaea,  after  the  place  where  it  was  usually 


PUBLIC   FESTIVALS.  385 

held,  the  Lenaeon,  in  the  suburb  Limnae,  and  was  held 
in  the  month  of  Gamelion  (January).  The  name 
suggests  a  feast  of  wine-presses,  which  does  not  coin- 
cide with  the  time  of  the  celebration  ;  many  attempts 
have  been  made  to  explain  this  difficulty,  but  with- 
out result.  The  festival,  or  at  any  rate  a  special 
part  of  it,  bore  the  name  Ambrosia,  probably 
because  they  drank  a  great  deal  of  the  new  wine  to 
which  they  assigned  this  divine  name ;  and,  in  fact, 
plentiful  drinking  was  a  characteristic  of  all  the 
festivals  of  the  wine  god.  A  great  banquet  accom- 
panied the  festivities,  for  which  the  State  provided 
everything,  and  there  was  also  a  solemn  procession 
Into  the  town,  in  which  many  people  drove,  amid  jest 
and  frolic,  so  that  the  "jokes  from  the  car"  became 
proverbial.  In  the  Lenaeon,  to  which  the  procession 
first  marched  with  the  sacrificial  animals,  solemn 
dithyrambs  were  sung  in  competition,  and  the  prize 
was  a  wreath  of  ivy  ;  there  were  also  dramatic  repre- 
sentations, at  which  both  old  and  new  pieces  were 
performed. 

The  third  festival  of  Dionysus  was  the  Anthes- 
teria,  in  the  month  Anthesterion  (February),  which 
lasted  three  days,  and  was  even  more  distinctly  associ- 
ated with  the  tasting  of  the  new  wine  than  the 
Lenaea.  The  first  day  of  the  festival  bore  the  dis- 
tinctive name  of  "Cask-opening"  (inOovytci).  It  was 
essentially  a  family  festival.  The  casks,  with  the  new 
wine  which  was  to  be  used  next  day  for  the  banquet, 
were  brought  in  by  the  servants  and  opened ;  the  wine 
was  drawn  off  into  amphoras  or  other  vessels,  and 
naturally  many  a  draught  was  drunk,  and  hi  par- 
ticular the  slaves  had  their  share.  For  the  Athenians, 
who  always  treated  their  slaves  well,  did  not  grudge 
them  their  fair  share  on  this  festive  occasion,  and 


3«6  GREEK    LIFE   AT    HOME. 

when  they  offered  their  sacrifices  at  the  Cask-opening, 
and  helped  to  draw  off  the  wine,  they  probably  them- 
selves filled  ajar  for  their  servants  and  workmen  with 
the  new  gift  of  Bacchus.  All  other  work  ceased  for 
this  day  and  the  next,  and  the  children,  too,  had 
holidays.  The  old  image  of  Dionysus,  which  was  to 
make  its  solemn  entry  into  the  town  in  the  procession 
of  the  following  day,  was  also  brought  on  this  first 
day  from  its  temple  in  the  Nemaeon  to  a  chapel  in 
the  outer  Kerameikos.  But  this  festival  was  only 
a  preparation  for  the  principal  day,  called  "  The 
Feast  of  Pitchers,"  Avhich  began  at  sunset — the  time 
when  all  festivals  commenced — with  a  great  proces- 
sion. Those  who  took  part  in  it  appeared  wreathed 
and  bearing  torches  (for  the  procession  did  not  take 
place  till  dark)  in  the  outer  Kerameikos ;  children, 
too,  except  those  under  three  years,  took  part  in  it, 
probably  accompanied  by  their  mothers,  or  in  car- 
riages, for  many  participants  drove ;  and  here,  as  in 
the  country  Dionysia,  it  was  the  custom  to  mock  the 
passers-by  from  the  carriage.  In  fact,  this  part  of  the 
festival  bore  the  character  of  a  merry  carnival ;  many 
people  appeared  in  costume  as  Horae,  Nymphs,  Bacch- 
antes, etc.,  and  crowded  gaily  around  the  triumphant 
car  on  which  the  statue  of  Dionysos-Eleutheros,  which 
had  been  fetched  from  its  temple  on  the  previous  day, 
was  conducted  to  the  town.  On  the  way  religious 
rites  were  observed  at  various  places  sanctified  by 
legend.  At  one  place  the  Basilimia,  that  is,  the 
wife  of  the  Archon  Basileus,  had  to  sit  on  the  car 
next  the  statue  of  Dionysus,  for  on  this  day  she 
was  the  bride  of  the  god,  and  thus,  on  her  wedding- 
car,  she  entered  the  Lenaeon,  where  a  mystic 
sacrifice  was  offered  for  the  welfare  of  the  State  in 
the  innerinost  part  of  the  temple,  by  the  Basilinna, 


PUBLIC    FESTIVALS.  387 

together  with  the  fourteen  ladies  of  honour  ap- 
pointed for  this  purpose  by  the  Archon  (jepapai). 
These  took  a  solemn  oath  to  the  queen  before  the 
ceremony  took  place,  and  in  so  doing  followed  an 
ancient  formula  inscribed  on  stone  columns  in  the 
temple.  After  the  sacrifice,  with  which  other  secret 
ceremonies  were  connected,  followed  the  symbolical 
marriage  of  the  Basilinna  and  Dionysus.  While  these 
sacred  ceremonies,  to  which  but  few  were  admitted, 
were  taking  place  in  the  interior  of  the  temple,  the 
other  celebrants  enjoyed  themselves  in  different  ways. 
On  the  next  day  the  actual  Pitcher  Feast  took  place 
— the  great  banquet,  with  the  drinking  contest,  that 
followed  it.  At  this  great  public  feast  the  Archon- 
Basileus  was  superintendent  of  the  festival,  but 
the  State  defrayed  the  expenses,  originally,  probably, 
in  kind,  but  afterwards  in  such  a  way  that  each 
citizen  received  a  fixed  sum  of  money,  and  with  this 
supplied  his  food  and  also  the  can  of  pure  wine  which 
stood  in  front  of  everyone,  and  gave  its  name  to  this 
day.  Both  the  banquet  and  the  drinking  contest 
were  probably  held  in  the  theatre  in  the  Lenaeon, 
where  the  chief  priest  of  Dionysus  had  to  provide 
cushions,  tables  and  other  conveniences.  A  proclama- 
tion by  the  herald,  in  ancient  style,  introduced  the 
most  interesting  event — the  drinking  contest.  At  a 
signal  given  by  a  trumpet,  all  who  took  part  hi  it 
set  their  pitchers  to  their  mouths,  and  the  judges 
allotted  the  victory  to  him  who  first  emptied  his ;  the 
prize  consisted  in  a  skin  of  wine,  cakes,  or  something  of 
the  kind.  Besides  this  public  banquet  there  were  also 
private  hospitalities,  provided  by  those  who  preferred 
to  celebrate  the  day  by  themselves  in  the  circle  of  a 
tew  intimate  friends,  and  here,  too,  much  drinking 
went  on;  the  Sophists,  in  particular,  who  received 


388  GREEK  LIFE   AT  HOME. 

their  honorarium  and  presents  on  this  day,  were  in 
the  habit  of  inviting  their  acquaintances  to  a  feast. 
Thus  things  went  on  merrily  till  the  beginning  of  the 
night;  then  each  guest  took  his  pitcher  and  the 
wreath  of  fresh  flowers  which  he  had  worn  at  the 
feast  to  the  sanctuary  of  Dionysos-Eleutheros,  that 
was  divided  off  with  a  rope,  and  here  the  wreaths 
were  handed  to  the  priestess,  and  the  remains  in  the 
pitcher  poured  out  as  a  libation  to  the  god. 

The  third  day  was  called  the  "Feast  of  Pots" 
(xvrpoi),  from  a  sacrifice  offered  to  Hermes  Chthonios 
and  the  spirits  of  the  dead,  and  here  they  observed  the 
traditional  custom  of  first  sacrificing  to  those  who  had 
perished  hi  the  Flood  of  Deucalion.  At  these  sacri- 
fices, pots  containing  a  number  of  vegetable  sub- 
stances cooked  together,  played  an  important  part, 
and  these  dishes  also  constituted  the  meal  of  this  day, 
on  which  no  flesh  was  eaten.  The  ladies  of  honour 
also  offered  sacrifices  to  Dionysus  at  sixteen  specially 
erected  altars,  and  there  were  probably  other  cere^ 
monies  connected  with  this ;  in  fact,  this  third  day  of 
the  "  Anthesteria,"  with  its  serious  ceremonial,  formed 
a  strong  contrast  to  the  merriment  of  the  previous 
days,  and  suggests  a  similar  contrast  between  our 
Shrove  Tuesday  and  Ash  Wednesday.  But  even  on 
the  "  Day  of  Pots  "  there  was  no  lack  of  amusements 
for  the  people ;  sacred  choruses  were  conducted  by  the 
poets,  but  it  does  not  seem  that  any  regular  dramas 
were  performed.  Possibly  dramatic  contests  had  been 
the  custom  in  earlier  times,  or  else  only  such  competi- 
tions were  allowed  as  determined  the  admission  of  the 
poets  and  actors,  who  won  the  prize  on  this  occasion, 
to  competition  at  the  greater  Dionysia.  The  chief 
festival  of  Dionysus  in  Attica  was  the  greater,  or  city 
Dionysia,  in  Elaphebolion  (March),  which  lasted  at 


PUBLIC   FESTIVALS.  389 

least  five  days,  and  perhaps  even  longer,  and  whose 
chief  importance  consisted  in  the  plays  acted  during 
these  days.  The  first  solemn  ceremony  of  the  greater 
Dionysia  was  in  honour  of  Aesculapius,  to  whom  a 
public  sacrifice  was  brought.  Here,  too,  there  was  a 
procession,  in  which  the  statue  of  Dionysos-Eleutheros 
was  carried ;  whether  it  was  the  old  wooden  image 
which  was  carried  at  the  Lenaea,  or  the  new  statue 
by  Alcamenes,  is  uncertain,  but  the  latter  was  of 
gold  and  ivory,  and,  therefore,  not  easily  portable; 
in  any  case  the  statue  was  fetched  from  the  sanc- 
tuary at  Lenaea,  and  carried  by  torchlight  to  the 
theatre  of  Dionysus,  where  it  was  set  up  in  the 
orchestra.  On  the  following  day  came  the  procession, 
in  which  the  sacrificial  animals,  as  well  as  the  presents 
sent  by  aUies,  probably  appeared.  The  procession 
stopped  in  the  market  place,  and  a  cyclical  chorus 
performed  a  dance  round  the  altar  to  the  Delphic 
gods  who  stood  there.  When  they  passed  on  they 
seem  to  have  fetched  away  the  Dionysus  statue  from 
the  theatre,  and  carried  it  once  more  in  a  festive  pro- 
cession to  the  sanctuary  in  the  Lenaeon.  This  proces- 
sion was  followed  by  sacrificial  banquets,  and  on  the 
other  days  plentiful  feasting  was  also  a  part  of  the 
celebration.  The  following  days  were  chiefly  occupied 
by  the  performances,  which  seem  to  have  followed  in 
some  such  order  as  this :  First  of  all,  lyric  choruses ; 
both  men  and  boys  entered,  and  the  expenses,  which 
were  heavy,  were  defrayed  by  citizens  acting  as  choragi. 
Perhaps  this  day  was  concluded  by  a  "  Comus,"  as 
public  processions  of  this  kind  often  followed  common 
banquets,  and  since  it  was  the  god  of  wine  who  was 
specially  to  be  honoured,  it  was,  no  doubt,  very  splen- 
didly equipped.  The  next  days  were  occupied  with 
representations  of  tragic  tetralogies  and  comedies;  it 


390  GREEK    LIFE   AT   HOME. 

is  not  certain  whether  these  lasted  two  or  more  days, 
but  it  is  probable  that  they  continued  for  three 
days,  and  that  on  each  of  these  a  tetralogy  was  per- 
formed in  the  morning  and  a  comedy  in  the  afternoon. 
On  the  evening  of  the  third  day  of  the  performances, 
which  concluded  the  whole  festival,  the  prizes  were 
distributed  ;  in  these  musical  contests  they  consisted 
01  bulls  and  tripods.  These  last  were  often  set  up 
in  a  public  street  on  a  high  pedestal  by  the  victors, 
and  hence  it  acquired  the  name  "  Street  of  Tripods." 

Very  different  in,  character  from  these  Dionysiac 
festivals  of  Attica  were  the  night  celebrations  which 
took  place  in  some  parts  of  Greece,  but  especially  on 
the  Cithaeron  and  Parnassus,  on  the  Islands,  and  in 
Asia  Minor,  every  other  year,  and  in  which  only 
women,  both  married  and  unmarried,  took  part. 
The  wild  and  orgiastic  character  of  these  Dionysia 
originated  in  Thrace,  but  spread  very  quickly,  and 
found  much  favour  among  the  women,  who  were 
inclined  to  this  kind  of  ecstatic  worship.  They  fell  in 
the  middle  of  winter,  about  the  time  of  the  shortest 
day ;  the  women  dressed  for  the  purpose  in  Bacchic 
costume,  threw  deer-skins  over  their  shoulders,  let 
their  hair  fly  loose,  and  took  in  their  hands  the 
thyrsus  staff  and  tambourine,  and  thus  wandered  to 
the  hills  near  their  homes,  and  there  performed  all 
manner  of  mysterious  ceremonies,  sacrifices,  dances, 
etc.,  amid  the  wildest  merriment  resulting  from  the 
juice  of  the  grape,  which  was  seldom  allowed  them, 
We  can  form  some  notion  of  the  wild  nature  of 
the  proceedings  from  the  descriptions  of  the  poets 
and  artistic  representations  of  Maenads;  still,  we 
must  always  remember  that  both  poets  and  artists 
described  not  so  much  the  customs  of  their  own 
day  as  those  of  mythical  or  heroic  periods,  and 


PUBLIC   FESTIVALS.  391 

permitted  themselves  many  exaggerations  which  did 
not  correspond  to  reality. 

These  descriptions  of  •  Greek,  and  especially 
Athenian,  festivities  must  suffice,  and  we  pass  over 
a  number  of  festivals  in  Greece  and  the  colonies, 
of  which  we  know  little  more  than  the  names. 
Those  who  desire  a  striking  picture  of  a  great 
festival,  which,  though  Oriental  in  its  origin,  had 
become  Hellenised,  celebrated  in  a  great  city  in 
the  Alexandrine  age,  should  read  the  splendid  de- 
scription by  Theocritus  in  his  Fifteenth  Idyll  of  the 
Feast  of  Adonis  at  Alexandria 


CHAPTER    XIL 

THE    THEATRE. 

Origin  of  the  Greek  Drama— The  Structure  of  the  Theatre— 
The  Theatre  of  Dionysus— The  Theatre  at  Syracuse  —  The 
Auditorium — The  Stage — The  Orchestra — Scene-painting — Stage 
Accessories — The  Greek  Drama — Tragedy,  Comedy,  and  Satire — 
The  Choragia— Theatrical  Masks— Costumes— Conditions  of  Ad- 
mission to  the  Theatre — The  Securing  of  Seats — The  Audience. 

GREEK  drama,  both  tragedy  and  comedy,  originated 
in  the  national  amusements  and  performances  of  the 
choruses  at  the  Dionysiac  festivals.  A  few  words 
must  also  be  said  about  the  arrangements  of  the 
theatre,  such  as  they  were  at  the  time  of  the 
greatest  glory  of  the 'drama  at  Athens.  Here,  for- 
tunately, we  have  so  large  a  store  of  information  and 
monuments  still  extant,  that  we  can  form  a  very  clear 
picture  of  these  representations,  differing  as  they  did 
entirely  from  our  modern  performances. 

In  spite  of  the  great  advance  made  by  Greek  drama 
from  the  rough  popular  beginnings  till  the  time  of  its 
greatest  glory,  and  in  spite  of  the  enormous  difference 
between  the  tragedies  of  the  three  great  masters  ind 
the  comedies  of  Aristophanes,  both  in  their  wnole 
character  as  well  as  ha  the  details  of  their  structure  and 
performance,  and  the  cyclic  choruses  and  rustic  sports 
of  the  old  Dionysia,  yet  there  are  a  few  points  in  which 
the  drama,  even  in  its  highest  development,  shows  the 
traces  of  its  origin.  One  of  these  is  the  custom  of 
giving  theatrical  representations  only  at  certain  festive 
seasons  of  the  year,  and  in  some  way  connected  with 
the  worship  of  Dionysus  as  actual  religious  acts,  though 


THE   THEATRE. 


393 


towards  the  end  of  the  ancient  Hellenic  period  theat- 
rical representations  were  also  given  at  festivals  not  in 


<Q 


A  Temple  of  Asclepios. 

I)  Rocky  ground. 

c  Seats  hewn  from  the  locks. 

D  Entrance. 

R  Remains  of  rows  of  seats. 

1  Destroyed  portions 

0  Parts  not  yet  excavated. 

H  Not  yet  excavated  ;   private  property,  with 
houses  on  it. 

1  Avenue  or  u^ulevnrd. 

K  Church  of  the  P-issover— 
(a)  Former  size, 
(h)  Present  size. 


FIG.  150. 


honour  of  Dionysus.  In  consequence  of  this  the 
structure  of  the  theatres,  and  especially  the  place  for 
the  spectators,  had  to  be  far  larger  than  at  the  present 
day.  As  performances  only  took  place  a  few  times  in 

N* 


394  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

the  year,  and  not  only  the  whole  population  of  the 
town  and  neighbourhood,  but  even  many  strangers 
from  a  distance,  collected  together  for  them,  the  space 
for  the  audience  had  to  be  so  large  that  many  thousands, 
even  tens  of  thousands,  might  have  room  there,  and  it 
must  also  be  built  in  such  a  way  that  the  performance 
could  be  conveniently  seen  from  every  place.  These 
Remarks  refer  in  particular  to  Athens,  with  whose 
theatrical  arrangements  we  are  best  acquainted,  and 
which,  moreover,  was  the  model  for  most  of  the  others. 
In  the  first  place,  it  was  impossible  to  have  a  covered 
space ;  covered  theatres — concert-halls  (coSeui),  as  they 
were  called — were  destined,  not  for  dramatic,  but  for 
musical  performances ;  secondly,  the  performances 
took  place  by  daylight,  in  consequence  of  which  much 
of  the  illusion  was  lost.  Again,  the  great  size  of  the 
structure  and  the  considerable  distance  of  most  of  the 
seats  from  the  actors  necessitated  certain  peculiarities 
in  the  costume  of  these  latter  which  we  must  discuss 
later  on. 

The  memory  of  the  origin  of  the  drama  from 
choruses,  to  which  in  the  course  of  time  was  added 
dramatic  action,  was  preserved  in  a  separation  between 
the  performers  who  presented  the  action  and  the 
chorus  who  only  accompanied  it — a  separation  which 
only  gradually  disappeared  at  a  time  when  means 
were  insufficient  for  defraying  the  considerable  ex- 
penses of  equipping  a  chorus.  This  distinction 
between  actors  and  chorus  was  not  only  observed  in 
the  composition  of  the  drama,  but  also  in  locality ; 
the  chorus,  who  not  only  sang,  but  also  danced  and 
marched,  required  a  very  large  space  for  their  evolu- 
tions, while  the  actors,  whose  number  was  very  small, 
could  do  with  less.  Therefore,  while  the  modern 
theatre  consists  of  only  two  parts,  the  stage  with  its 


396     .  GREEK   LIFE  AT  HOME. 

accessories  and  an  auditorium,  the  Greek  theatre 
consisted  of  three  parts ;  besides  the  auditorium  and 
the  structure  of  the  stage,  there  was  between  the 
two  a  space  for  the  chorus  known  as  orchestra.  In 
considering  the  arrangement  of  the  buildings,  we 
derive  assistance  from  the  descriptions  of  the  ancients, 
as  weU  as  the  still  existing  remains  of  Greek  theatres. 


FIG.   152. 

Fig.  150  represents  the  ground  plan  of  the  ruins  of 
the  great  theatre  of  Dionysus  at  Athens,  though  we 
must  remember  that  this  structure,  built  originally  in 
the  fifth  and  fourth  centuries  B.C.,  had  experienced 
considerable  changes  in  the  Roman  period.  Fig.  151 
gives  a  view  of  the  theatre  of  Syracuse  in  its  present 
condition,  and  the  ground  plan  restored  is  seen  in 
Fig.  152  ;  while  Fig.  153  gives  a  restored  view  of  the 
theatre  of  Segesta,  reconstructed  by  Strack.  We 


398  GREEK  LIFE   AT   HOME. 

may  regard  the  orchestra  as  the  centre  of  the  whole 
structure.  This  was  originally  only  a  level  dancing 
place,  and  its  shape  was  usually  an  incomplete  circle, 
since  part  was  cut  oft'  by  the  stage,  which  extended  at 
right  angles  along  the  orchestra.  Opposite  to  this 
the  circumference  of  the  orchestra  was  surrounded  in 
concentric  lines  by  the  raised  seats  of  the  auditorium, 
the  theatre  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word.  There  is 
no  fixed  standard  for  the  shape  of  the  orchestra  and 
the  corresponding  auditorium ;  sometimes  it  is  a 
semicircle  with  the  circumference  extended  a  little 
way  on  both  sides,  sometimes  it  is  lengthened  by  a 
tangent,  or  some  other  line  at  right  angles  to  the 
circle.  In  the  great  theatre  of  Dionysus  the  orchestra 
was  originally  a  perfect  circle ;  a  complete  semi- 
circle, which  is  common  in  the  Roman  theatres,  was 
very  unusual  in  those  of  Greece.  Here,  as  in  the 
structures  used  for  games,  such  as  the  Stadia  and 
Hippodromes,  the  Greeks  tried  as  far  as  possible  to 
utilise  the  natural  conditions  of  the  ground  for  their 
theatres.  If  possible,  therefore,  they  placed  the  audi- 
torium on  some  natural  elevation ;  thus,  the  great 
theatre  of  Dionysus  extends  up  the  southern  slope 
of  the  Acropolis ;  and  if  there  was  no  such  elevation 
they  often  supplied  it  by  artificial  mounds  of  earth 
differing  thus  from  the  custom  of  the  Romans,  who, 
in  consequence  of  the  greater  development  of  their 
architectural  knowledge,  were  able  to  build  a  theatre 
on  an  open  space,  and  to  support  the  auditorium  bj 
strong  sub-structures.  The  Greek  mode  of  building 
had  the  advantage  of  greater  cheapness  and  security, 
and,  if  the  nature  of  the  ground  permitted,  also 
enabled  them  to  make  exits  and  entrances  for  the 
public  besides  those  below.  In  the  theatre  of  Dionysus 
there  were  side  approaches  on  the  high  ground  also 


THE  THEATRE.  399 

The  auditorium  of  the  Greek  theatre  was  usually 
situated  in  some  beautiful  spot,  from  which  the 
visitors  to  the  theatre,  at  any  rate  those  on  the  higher 
ground,  who  were  not  hindered  by  the  structure  of 
the  stage  opposite,  had  an  extensive  view.  Thus  the 
theatre  of  Syracuse  (Fig.  151)  had  a  glorious  view 
over  the  harbour  and  town — in  fact,  nearly  all  the 
theatres  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  sea  are  usually 
so  built  that  the  auditorium  is  open  towards  the  sea, 
and  the  fresh  breeze  may  refresh  the  public  during 
the  hot  hours  of  the  day. 

The  seats,  according  to  the  nature  of  the  locality, 
were  either  hewn  direct  out  of  the  rocky  ground 
or  based  on  artificial  foundations.  At  Athens  the 
spectators  originally  sat  on  the  bare  ground  of  the 
Acropolis  slope  or  on  wooden  benches  placed  there ; 
in  the  fourth  century  stone  steps  were  made  there. 
At  Syracuse,  Sicyon,  and  other  places,  nearly  the 
whole  auditorium  and  the  steps  were  hewn  out  of  the 
rock;  the  ends  or  wings  of  the  auditorium,  which 
jutted  out  where  the  seats  ended,  close  by  the  stage, 
had  to  be  of  specially  massive  construction.  Some- 
times, though  more  often  in  the  Roman  than  the 
Greek  theatres,  the  auditorium  touched  the  side 
wings  of  the  stage;  but  this  was  not  a  particularly 
convenient  method,  since  a  considerable  number 
of  the  places  along  this  stone  wall  had  no  view  of 
the  stage  or,  at  any  rate,  only  a  very  unsatisfactory 
one.  Entrance  was  procured  for  the  public  by  the 
great  gates  which  led  on  the  right  and  left  between 
the  auditorium  and  the  stage,  and  which,  when  the 
spectators  were  assembled,  also  formed  the  entrances 
for  the  chorus  (TrdpoSoi).  When  a  theatre  was  situated 
on  elevated  ground,  there  were  also  other  approaches 
leading  to  the  gangways  of  the  upper  storeys ;  probably 


400  GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 

these  were  only  used  for  emptying  the  theatre,  and 
not  for  admission,  since  on  entering  the  spectators 
had  to  pay  for  their  admission,  or  else  present  their 
tickets,  and  therefore  the  number  of  entrances  was 
probably  limited  with  a  view  to  simplifying  the 
control  In  those  theatres  where  the  seats  extended 
as  far  as  the  stage,  the  approaches  which  were  below 
the  seats  had  to  be  covered  over  (compare  the  view  of 
the  theatre  at  Syracuse),  but,  as  a  rule,  we  must  sup- 
pose that  they  were  uncovered.  The  seats  were 
arranged  in  such  a  manner  that  the  steps,  which  rose 
from  the  orchestra  to  the  top  of  the  theatre,  were  also 
used  as  seats ;  people  sat  on  the  actual  stone,  unless, 
as  sometimes  happened,  they  brought  cushions  with 
them,  or  had  these  carried  by  slaves.  There  were 
a  number  of  places  in  the  lower  rows  distinguished 
from  the  others  by  seats  of  honour,  made  also  of  stone, 
usually  of  costly  marble ;  some  of  these  seats,  dating, 
however,  from  the  Roman  period,  have  been  found  in 
the  theatre  of  Dionysus.  The  usual  height  of  the 
steps  was  from  about  16  to  19  inches,  and  the  depth 
from  24  to  28.  There  was  no  division  of  seats,  and 
though  probably  care  was  taken  that  too  many  per- 
sons should  not  be  crowded  together,  yet  there  were 
no  lines  drawn  to  mark  out  the  appointed  places. 
There  was  a  very  convenient  and  at  the  same 
time  simple  arrangement  for  preventing  the  feet  of 
those  who  sat  on  a  higher  row  from  inconveniencing 
those  in  front.  The  depth  of  the  seat  was  often  suf- 
ficient to  prevent  contact,  but,  besides  that,  it  was  the 
custom  to  hollow  out  that  part  of  the  step  where  the 
spectators  would  put  their  feet.  Some  of  the  steps, 
in  fact,  have  three  distinct  surfaces:  the  nearest  of 
these  to  the  row  above  was  hollowed  out  for  the  feet ; 
then  came  a  gangway  for  those  who  wished  to  move 


THE   THEATRE.  401 

to  or  from  their  places,  who  could  thus  pass  along 
without  incommoding  those  who  were  seated ;  and 
the  third  surface  was  that  on  which  the  next  row 
below  were  seated.  There  were,  as  a  rule,  no  backs 
to  the  seats,  but  in  places  where  there  was  a  wider 
gangway,  and  thus  one  row  of  spectators  did  not 
come  into  immediate  contact  with  the  next,  they 
were  sometimes  introduced  and  made  of  one  piece 
with  the  seat. 

In  larger  theatres  the  auditorium  was  almost 
always  divided  into  several  storeys  by  gangways. 
These  gangways  ran  round  the  auditorium  concen- 
trically with  the  seats,  and  their  object  was  to 
facilitate  the  circulation  of  the  public ;  they  were 
therefore  of  considerable  breadth  (compare  Fig.  153), 
and  sometimes  two  such  gangways  were  put  close  to 
each  other,  one  higher  and  one  lower,  so  chat  the 
public  could  circulate  easily  on  them  without;  pushing 
each  other.  The  separate  seats  were  everywhere 
connected  by  steps.  Although  the  arrangement  of 
the  whole  auditorium  with  its  raised  seats  was  that  of 
a  circus,  yet  the  seats  were  far  too  high  to  be  used  as 
steps  also,  and  these  had  to  be  specially  constructed. 
They  were  of  two  kinds;  small  steps  in  the  direction 
of  the  seats,  the  object  of  which  was  to  enable  people 
to  mount  from  one  seat  to  the  next,  and  the  principal 
staircases,  which  intersected  the  seats  through  their 
whole  extent  from  top  to  bottom,  and  formed,  as  it 
were,  radii  of  the  circle  represented  by  the  auditorium. 
The  number  of  these  staircases  was  larger  or  smaller 
as  occasion  required ;  sometimes  the  number  was 
doubled  at  the  top,  where  the  distances  increased,  by 
introducing  a  third  staircase  between  each  pair; 
sometimes  the  staircases  which  began  below  did  not 
continue  at  the  top,  but  there  was  a  change  in  the 


402  GREEK  LIFE   AT  HOME. 

radii.  It  was  most  common,  however,  for  these  stair- 
cases to  intersect  the  whole  theatre  right  up  to  the 
highest  seats,  and  thus  to  divide  the  whole  auditorium 
into  a  number  of  wedge-shaped  divisions,  which,  in 
fact,  received  the  designation  of  wedges  (/ee/mSe?). 
Sometimes  these  wedges  had  special  names,  being 
called  after  statues  which  were  placed  there,  as,  for 
instance,  in  the  theatre  at  Syracuse,  and  these  desig- 
nations facilitated  the  finding  of  places.  As  a  rule, 
the  steps  were  so  arranged  that  there  were  two  to 
every  seat,  thus  each  step  was  half  the  height  of 
the  seat. 

In  later  times  the  upper  seats  led  to  open  arcades ; 
when  the  ground  permitted  it,  the  Romans  often  laid 
out  walks  and  gardens  on  the  elevation  of  the  theatre, 
where  the  spectators  might  refresh  themselves  during 
intervals ;  below,  near  the  orchestra,  the  auditorium 
was  cut  off  by  a  wall,  which  must  be  so  low  that  the 
spectators  on  the  first  seat  could  conveniently  see 
the  stage,  which  was  raised  a  good  bit  above  the 
orchestra.  Sometimes  the  first  gangway  for  the 
circulation  of  the  public  was  placed  behind  this 
wall,  which  was  bounded  by  a  low  breastwork; 
when  this  was  the  case,  steps  of  the  first-mentioned 
kind  led  up  sideways  to  the  orchestra  (compare  Fig. 
153). 

The  size  of  the  auditorium  varied  greatly.  If  our 
measurements  of  ruined  theatres  are  correct,  the 
theatre  at  Ephesus  was  the  largest  of  all ;  Falkener 
has  calculated  that  it  could  contain  56,700  people. 
The  largest  theatre  in  Europe  was  that  of  Megalopolis, 
which  was  calculated  to  have  44,000  seats,  and 
the  theatre  of  Dionysus  30,000.  These  calculations 
are,  however,  very  uncertain,  since  we  do  not  know 
how  many  feet  were  allotted  to  each  person,  and  a 


THE  THEATRE.  403 

variation  of  half  a  foot  would  make  a  very  consider- 
able difference. 

The  most  important  question  connected  with  the 
orchestra  deals  with  the  Thymele,  often  alluded  to 
by  ancient  writers.  It  was  formerly  assumed  that 
this  represented  the  ancient  altar  of  Dionysus,  round 
which  the  choruses  originally  danced,  and  that  it  was 
situated  in  the  centre  of  the  orchestra,  while  the 
chorus  grouped  around  it,  and  that  the  leader  of 
the  chorus  stood  near  the  Thymele  or  on  its  steps, 
and  the  officials  of  the  theatre  also  took  their  stand 
there.  The  view  given  by  S track  in  Fig.  153  is  con- 
structed according  to  this  hypothesis ;  and  a  structure 
resembling  an  altar  with  steps  is  placed  in  the  middle 
of  the  orchestra.  But  this  interpretation  of  the 
Thymele  has  proved  untenable,  and  though  it  is  not 
possible  to  decide  this  question  with  any  certainty, 
yet,  among  the  various  hypotheses,  that  of  Wieseler 
seems  the  most  probable — viz.,  that  the  Thymele  was 
a  wooden  scaffolding  constructed  in  the  orchestra,  on 
which  the  chorus  performed  its  dances.  The  main 
object  of  this  scaffolding,  or  podium,  was  not  so  much 
to  place  the  chorus  on  higher  ground  as  to  facilitate 
their  games  and  dancing,  because  it  was  easier  to 
move  and  dance  on  the  elastic  floor  of  a  wooden 
scaffolding  than,  as  formerly,  in  the  dusty  orchestra, 
which,  in  fact,  from  this  circumstance  received  the 
name  "dust-place"  (Koviarpa),  or  even  on  the  stone 
pavement  which  seems  to  have  been  afterwards  laid 
down  in  the  orchestra.  We  do  not  know  whether 
there  were  steps  leading  from  the  floor  of  the 
orchestra  to  this  scaffolding,  and,  in  fact,  we  cannot 
even  determine  its  height.  The  size  of  the  podium 
must  have  been  considerable,  since  it  must  have 
supplied  sufficient  space  for  a  large  chorus.  Besides 


404  GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 

its  members,  the  number  of  which  in  cyclic  choruses 
often  amounted  to  fifty,  the  musicians  who 
accompanied  took  their  place  there,  and,  apparently, 
even  the  constables  (j>a{3So<f)6poi),  who  superintended 
the  theatre;  for,  strange  as  it  may  seem  to  us  that 
the  officials  whose  duty  it  was  to  keep  order  among 
the  public  should  be  placed  in  so  prominent  a  position 
at  the  side  of  the  chorus,  yet  the  proofs  in  favour  of 
this  arrangement  seem  decisive.  The  usual  entrances 
to  the  orchestra  for  the  chorus  were  the  same  as  those 
used  by  the  public ;  here,  as  in  the  arrangements  on 
the  stage,  the  rule  was  that  the  entrance  on  the  right 
hand  of  the  spectators  indicated  approach  from  the 
neighbourhood,  from  the  town  or  harbour,  and  the 
left  arrival  from  a  distance. 

The  stage  in  the  early  days  of  the  theatre  was  not 
much  more  than  a  mere  wooden  scaffolding,  on  which 
the  actors  appeared,  while  the  chorus  performed  its 
dances  in  the  orchestra  below.  There  was  a  tent  on 
the  side  turned  away  from  the  orchestra  which  served 
as  a  place  of  waiting  for  the  actors  when  they  had 
nothing  to  do  on  the  stage,  and  it  was  this  tent 
(vKTjvri)  which  gave  its  name  to  the  stage,  although 
even  afterwards  distinction  was  made  between  the 
actual  stage  and  the  structures  connected  with  it. 
The  real  stage  was  an  oblong  surface,  raised  from  ten 
to  twelve  feet  above  the  orchestra ;  it  was  called  the 
proscenium  (TrpoGKrjviov'),  and  sometimes  the  speaking- 
place  (\oyelov).  The  lower  front  wall  was  decorated 
in  the  Roman  period  with  architectural  designs, 
reliefs,  or  painting  ;  we  do  not  know  whether  this  was 
also  the  case  in  the  Greek  theatre,  as  S track  has 
assumed  in  his  reconstruction,  but  it  is  very  probable 
that  the  front  scene,  which  was  turned  to  the  specta- 
tors was  not  left  quite  bare.  In  Strack's  view  there 


THE   THEATRE.  405 

were  also  steps  leading  from  the  orchestra  to  the 
speaking-place.  We  cannot  tell  whether  these  were 
regularly  placed  in  the  theatres.  Still,  steps  between 
the  orchestra  and  stage  were  indispensable  in  those 
plays  in  which  (as,  for  instance,  in  "  Philoctetes ") 
the  chorus  leaves  the  orchestra  and  ascends  to  the 
stage  ;  but  it  is  quite  possible  that  there  were  special 
wooden  steps  used  for  this  purpose,  which  were  taken 
away  again  when  this  connection  was  not  required. 
The  existence  of  these  movable  steps  is  especially 
mentioned  in  ancient  writers. 

Connected  with  this  proscenium  were  the  build- 
ings belonging  to  the  stage ;  these  usually  formed  a 
structure  several  storeys  in  height,  which  enclosed 
the  stage  on  three  sides  (compare  Fig.  153)  in  the 
plan  of  the  theatre  of  Dionysus  (Fig.  150).  The 
older  walls  belonging  to  the  fourth  century  are 
sketched  more  lightly  than  the  later  restorations ; 
here  the  walls  of  the  stage,  the  actual  skene,  is  the 
piece  marked  G.  Z. ;  on  the  right  and  left  were  side 
wings  (Trapaa-Kijvia),  and  these  were  terminated  by  the 
walls  12  and  13.  The  latest  investigations  of  Dorp- 
feld  prove  that  the  stage  of  the  theatre  of  Dionysus, 
constructed  by  the  orator  Lycurgus,  had  originally  no 
fixed  proscenium,  but  that  a  fresh  wooden  stage  was 
constructed  on  every  occasion.  In  later  times  they 
cut  off  a  piece  of  the  two  side  wings  and  fixed  scenery 
between  them.  Several  doors  led  from  the  tent  to 
the  stage;  as  a  rule,  there  were  three  in  the  back- 
ground, of  which  the  middle  one  was  the  entrance  of 
the  chief  actor,  called  "Protagonist,"  and  was  sup- 
posed to  lead  either  from  a  royal  palace,  or  a  dwelling, 
or  a  cave,  according  to  the  nature  of  the  play ;  the 
door  on  the  right  was  for  the  second  actor,  the  one 
on  the  left  had  no  special  significance.  We  must  not, 


406  GREEK  LIFE   AT  HOME. 

however,  regard  these  statements  as  universal  Prob- 
ably there  were  usually  three  entrances  to  the  stage, 
though  in  the  theatre  of  Dionysus  there  is  only  a 
single  door;  but  as  the  front  was  usually  covered 
by  some  decoration,  these  entrances  were  not  directly 
used,  but  the  actors  came  through  them  into  the 
narrow  space  between  the  wall  of  the  stage  and  the 
decorations,  and  thence  through  the  doors  in  the 
decorations  on  to  the  stage.  The  scenery  of  the 
background  varied  according  to  the  nature  of  the 
action,  and  sometimes  required  several  doors  or 
entrances ;  sometimes  there  may  have  been  no  door 
at  all,  since  the  actors  also  had  at  their  disposal  the 
entrances  by  the  side  wings.  These  statements,  there- 
fore, only  refer  to  certain  plays,  especially  those 
tragedies  in  which  the  chief  personage  is  a  king ;  in 
this  case,  probably,  the  middle  door  was  the  one  sup- 
posed to  lead  to  the  royal  palace,  and  used,  therefore, 
only  by  the  protagonist,  although  we  must  not  on 
that  account  suppose  that  he  always  came  and  went 
through  this  door,  since  the  nature  of  the  plays  would 
of  itself  forbid  this.  Very  often,  too,  a  king  appeared 
in  the  play  whose  part  was  an  unimportant  one,  not 
given  to  the  protagonist,  and  then,  of  course,  the  rule 
above  quoted  could  not  be  observed. 

The  side  wings  were  used  for  the  actors  to  wait  in, 
and  it  is  very  probable  that  the  chorus  also  before 
making  their  appearance,  and  during  the  time  when 
they  were  not  present  in  the  orchestra,  retired  thither, 
and  that  there  were  passages  leading  thence  to  the 
side  entrances.  There  were  also  doors  communicating 
with  the  stage,  and  these,  like  those  in  the  orchestra, 
had  their  special  significance;  through  the  right- 
hand  door  came  those  actors  who  were  supposed  to 
oome  from  the  town,  and  through  the  left  those  who 


THE   THEATRE.  407 

came  from  a  distance,  such  as  messengers,  guests, 
friends  returning  home,  etc. 

The  decorations  were  only  on  the  stage,  the 
orchestra  was  left  quite  bare,  and  probably  had  not 
even  any  movable  properties.  It  is  pure  fantasy  to 
suppose  that  in  some  plays  a  connection  was  established 
between  the  stage  and  orchestra  by  making  the  whole 
represent  a  mountain  with  rocky  caves,  etc.  The 
Greeks  assumed  a  certain  amount  of  illusion,  but  con- 
fined this  to  the  stage ;  they  did  not  trouble  about 
the  space  in  front,  any  more  than  we  care  to-day 
about  the  appearance  of  the  orchestra  in  front  of  the 
opera.  It  was  the  scene  represented  on  the  stage 
that  gave  its  significance  to  the  orchestra ;  if  a  palace 
was  represented,  and  the  stage  represented  the  place 
in  front  of  it,  then  the  orchestra  became  an  open 
space,  on  which  the  people  assembled ;  if  the  back- 
ground was  a  temple,  the  orchestra  was  the  sacred 
space  immediately  in  front  of  it  (re/iew?),  and  so  on. 
Possibly  the  wall  under  the  front  of  the  stage  was 
connected  with  the  decoration,  so  that  if  the  stage, 
for  instance,  represented  a  wild  forest  with  a  cave,  the 
front  of  the  scene  was  similarly  decorated. 

Scene-painting,  in  which  Greek  art  first  made  an 
attempt  at  perspective  drawing,  had  no  such  difficult 
and  complicated  tasks  to  accomplish  in  those  times  as 
in  ours.  The  chief  pieces  of  scenery  were  the  back- 
ground and  the  revolving  pieces  (irepiaicra).  The  back- 
ground of  the  proscenium  had  to  cover  the  wall  of 
the  stage,  and  also  indicate  the  place  of  the  action, 
whether  a  square  in  front  of  a  palace,  or  a  street 
with  private  houses,  or  a  forest,  etc.  We  must  not 
think  of  the  great  variety  of  scenery  known  to  our 
modern  stage ;  no  doubt,  too,  they  were  content  with 
very  simple  execution,  merely  hinting  at  the  scene 


408  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

required.  The  background  was  probably  suspended 
in  a  wooden  scaffolding  or  frame,  and  placed  imme- 
diately before  the  inner  scene  front  on  the  floor  of  the 
stage.  We  do  not  know,  however,  how  the  decoration 
of  the  background  was  changed,  for  change  of  scene 
was  sometimes  necessary  even  in  the  ancient  drama ; 
perhaps  they  were  in  the  habit  in  such  cases  of  placing 
one  of  the  scenes  in  front  of  another,  so  that,  as  at 
the  present  day,  the  front  decoration  had  only  to  be 
moved,  either  by  dropping  it  or  by  dividing  it  in  two 
parts  drawn  to  the  side  (for  iu  the  absence  of  rods 
they  could  not  draw  them  up),  and  thus  the  second 
scene  became  visible  behind. 

The  second  kind  of  decoration,  which  took  the 
place  of  our  movable  scenes,  were  the  revolving  pieces. 
These  were  two  contrivances  shaped  like  a  three-sided 
prism,  placed  on  either  side  of  the  stage  at  a  little 
distance  from  the  side-wings  ;  their  axis  was  attached 
to  the  wooden  floor  of  the  stage,  and  round  this 
they  moved.  Each  of  them  had  three  surfaces  for 
decoration,  so  that,  by  turning  them  round,  three 
different  scenes  could  be  represented,  and  this  was 
doubtless  enough  for  any  play,  for  in  the  pieces  which 
have  come  down  to  us  there  is  only  change  of  scene 
in  two,  the  "  Eumenides  "  of  Aeschylus,  and  the  "  Ajax  " 
of  Sophocles,  and  in  both  these  tragedies  there  is  only 
one  change.  These  revolving  pieces  must  also  have 
had  a  little  store  of  decorations,  for  it  was  very  easy 
to  cover  them  with  a  change  of  picture,  as  they 
appear  to  have  been  simple  stands.  The  theory  that 
the  ancient  stage  had  altogether  only  three  scenes  for 
these  stands — viz.,  one  for  tragedy,  one  for  comedy,  and 
one  for  the  satyric  drama,  is  undoubtedly  mistaken. 

The  Greek  stage  had  no  other  scenery  than  that 
tor  the  background  and  the  revolving  pieces :  there 


THE  THEATRE.  409 

must  have  been  some  movable  properties,  such  as 
benches,  altars,  tombs,  etc.,  which  are  indicated  by  the 
contents  of  many  plays  preserved  to  us.  It  is  very 
doubtful  whether  the  Greek  theatre  resembled  the 
Roman  in  the  use  of  a  curtain,  which,  instead  of 
drawing  up,  sank  down  into  the  ground  when  the 
play  opened ;  there  is  no  absolute  proof  that  this  was 
the  case.  The  modern  prompter's  box  was  unknown, 
and  it  is  evident  that  they  did  not  make  use  of  a 
prompter. 

The  machinery  of  the  ancient  stage  seems  to  have 
been  very  complicated.  Of  most  of  the  theatrical 
machines  we  know  only  the  names,  and  can  form  but 
a  very  insufficient  conception  of  them.  A  contrivance 
in  very  frequent  use  was  the  "  rolling-out  machine " 
(etf.tcvK\i)fjLa),  which,  according  to  the  statements  of 
ancient  writers,  was  used  to  show  the  spectators  pro- 
ceedings in  the  interior  of  a  house — as  we  should 
say,  "  behind  the  scenes ; "  for  in  the  Greek  drama  the 
scene  was  never  laid  inside  a  room,  but  everything 
went  on  in  the  open  air.  Our  authorities  do  not,  how- 
ever, enable  us  to  form  any  clear  conception  of  this 
contrivance ;  probably  the  background  opened  out  in 
some  way,  and  the  person  or  group  which  was  to  be 
seen  on  the  machine  was  rolled  out  on  a  wooden- 
scaffolding  moving  on  rollers  or  wheels,  which  must,  of 
course,  have  been  decorated  in  some  way;  in  some 
cases  it  may  have  been  unnecessary  to  open  out  the 
background,  and  sufficient  lor  the  machine  to  be 
pushed  in  through  one  of  the  three  doors.  There  was 
a  similar  contrivance  for  rolling  out  persons  who  were 
to  be  shown  in  the  upper  storey  of  a  house  at  a  corre- 
sponding height  above  the  stage,  as  we  see  from  the 
"  Acharnians"  of  Aristophanes,  where  Euripides  apnears 
in  this  manner  on  a  sort  of  balcony  in  the  upper  storey. 


410  GREEK  LIFE  AT  HOME. 

Another  con  trivancebore  the  special  name  of  "machine" 
(iMrj-^avrf),  and  was  the  origin  of  the  expression  Deuus 
ex  machina,  used  when  a  god,  descending  from 
Olympus,  violently  cut  the  knot  of  the  action ;  this 
was  used  for  suspending  in  the  air  gods,  heroes,  or 
mortals,  but  especially  those  persons  who  had  to 
appear  above  as  though  flying.  We  cannot  tell 
where  this  machine  was  attached,  and  how  it  was 
worked ;  there  seems  to  have  been  a  contrivance  of 
this  kind  on  either  side  of  the  stage,  above  the  side 
entrances,  near  the  side  pieces,  and  the  one  on  the 
left  was  used  by  gods,  while  that  on  the  right  was 
used  for  other  purposes.  The  machine  itself  must 
usually  have  been  kept  in  some  upper  storey  of  the 
stage  structure.  It  must  have  been  a  somewhat 
dangerous  means  of  transit;  the  actors  who  had  to 
perform  this  aerial  journey  were  usually  bound  fast 
with  ropes  or  girths,  and  in  the  "Peace"  of  Aristophanes 
Trygaeus,  when  mounting  on  his  aerial  horse,  the  dung- 
beetle,  which  must  have  been  a  similar  flying  machine, 
implores  the  manager  of  the  machinery,  who  has  to 
superintend  all  these  arrangements,  to  be  very  careful 
that  he  does  not  come  to  grief.  The  "  gods'  speaking- 
place  "  (6eo\oyetov)  appears  to  have  been  a  scaffolding 
above  the  chief  entrance  in  the  background,  on  which 
the  gods  appeared,  probably  surrounded  by  clouds; 
it  differed  from  the  "  machine  "  in  showing  the  gods 
peacefully  throned  above,  instead  of  bringing  the 
Olympian  deities  down  to  earth.  Connected  with  the 
"  machine  "  was  the  "  crane  "  (yepavos),  a  crane-like 
machine  let  down  from  above,  which  was  used  when 
human  beings  were  to  be  lifted  up  from  the  stage  ;  as, 
for  instance,  when  Eos  carried  away  the  corpse  of 
Memnon  through  the  air. 

They  also  had  machines  for  producing  thunder 


THE  THEATRE.  411 

and  lightning.  We  do  not  know  how  the  lightning 
was  made,  and  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  that  it  could 
have  been  produced  with  any  great  result  hi  broad 
daylight.  The  thunder  was  caused  by  rolling  bladders 
fuU  of  little  stones  to  and  fro  on  brass  plates  in  the 
hollow  space  under  the  stage.  In  this  hollow  space 
were  also  probably  the  "  steps  of  Charon,"  a  contrivance 
for  bringing  the  spirits  of  the  dead  on  to  the  stage. 
Nothing  certain  is  known  concerning  these  steps,  but 
it  is  very  probable  that  they  were  managed  after  the 
fashion  of  our  trap-doors,  for  undoubtedly  the  floor 
of  the  stage  covered  a  hollow  space,  and  thus  a  con- 
trivance of  this  kind  was  very  easily  produced. 

We  must  next  consider  the  plays  which  had  to 
be  performed  here.  On  the  old  Greek  stage  there 
were  three  kinds  of  drama — tragedies,  comedies, 
and  satyric  dramas.  The  comedies  were  acted 
singly,  and  each  constituted  a  complete  whole;  but 
tragedy,  as  it  developed  out  of  the  Dionysus  legend 
and  the  division  of  the  action  into  three  connected 
therewith,  was  so  constructed  that  a  large  circle 
of  myth  was  treated  in  three  separate  tragedies, 
whose  contents  were  connected,  but  which  were 
structurally  complete  in  themselves,  and  these  were 
called  a  Trilogy.  But  about  the  same  time  the 
curious  custom  originated  of  following  up  these 
three  serious  pieces,  with  their  deeply  pathetic  con- 
tents, by  a  merry  satyric  drama  by  the  same  author, 
— a  wild  farce,  in  which  a  chorus  of  satyrs  was  intro- 
duced in  connection  with  some  mythical  action,  which 
of  course,  only  appeared  in  travesty ;  and  this  com- 
bination of  four  dramas  was  called  a  Tetralogy. 
Unfortunately  no  tetralogy  has  come  down  complete 
to  us  ;  the  trilogy  of  Aeschylus  alone,  which  deals  with 
the  story  of  Orestes,  gives  us  some  notion  of  the  mode 


412  GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 

in  which  the  tragic  poets  arranged  their  material  in 
the  form  of  a  trilogy.  The  first  part,  "  Agamemnon," 
represents  the  murder  of  Agamemnon  by  Clytem- 
nestra  and  Aegisthus  ;  the  second,  the  "  Choephorae," 
the  vengeance  taken  by  Orestes  on  the  murderers ; 
the  third,  the  "  Eumenides,"  the  absolution  for  the 
murder  of  his  mother  by  the  Areopagus.  The  tragic 
poets  did  not  very  long  abide  by  the  custom  of  pre- 
senting complete  tetralogies  at  the  Dionysia,  in  which 
the  trilogy  presented  one  connected  subject.  It  at- 
tained its  complete  development  under  Aeschylus, 
but  Sophocles  already  began  to  depart  from  it,  and  in 
the  tetralogies  with  which  he  and  Euripides  competed, 
the  internal  connection  between  the  tragedies  was 
wanting.  In  later  times  it  was  customary  for  tragedies 
complete  in  themselves  to  be  acted  singly, -so  that  the 
poets  competed  with  drama  against  drama ;  still,  the 
inscriptions  show  us  that  even  in  the  fourth  century 
tetralogies  were  acted,  though  they  may  not  have 
been  connected.  Each  of  these  three  kinds  of  drama 
underwent  several  changes  during  the  course  of  Greek 
literature. 

In  tragedy,  whose  subject  was  usually  legend,  but 
which  also  dealt  with  questions  of  the  day,  such  as  the 
occupation  of  Miletus  and  the  wars  with  the  Persians, 
there  was  at  first  a  distinct  preponderance  of  the  lyric 
element  supplied  by  the  chorus  over  the  purely 
dramatic  part.  Before  the  time  of  Aeschylus  there 
was  little  idea  of  dramatic  treatment ;  at  that  time 
there  was  only  a  single  actor  who,  together  with  the 
chorus,  supplied  the  whole  action,  and  confined  him- 
self chiefly  to  recitations,  so  that  there  could  be  no 
question  of  striking  situations  and  dialogue.  Aeschylus 
then  introduced  a  second  actor ;  and  as  these  actors, 
by  a  change  of  dress,  could  undertake  several  parts, 


THE   THEATRE.  413 

the  action  was  enlarged  and  animated,  and  the  dialogue 
grew  more  interesting.  When  Sophocles  added  a 
third  actor — an  innovation  of  which  Aeschylus,  too, 
made  use  in  his  later  period,  and  which  constituted 
the  highest  number  ever  used  in  the  Greek  drama — 
the  victory  of  the  dramatic  part  over  the  lyric  was 
accomplished ;  and  from  that  time  onward  the  chorus 
sank  in  importance  compared  with  the  actors,  and  at 
last  disappeared  altogether.  In  the  tragedies  of 
Euripides  the  dramatic  element  had  become  so  im- 
portant that  the  chorus  could  really  be  dispensed 
with  ;  true,  Euripides  could  not  venture  entirely  to 
discard  this  custom,  which  was  sanctified  by  religion 
and  tradition,  but,  by  gradually  diminishing  the  share 
of  the  chorus  in  the  action,  he  prepared  for  its  com- 
plete abandonment.  In  Aeschylus,  therefore,  the 
solemn  songs  and  reflections  of  the  chorus  occupy  a 
considerable  space,  and  the  chorus  even  sometimes 
takes  an  active  part  in  the  action,  since  it  preponde- 
rates in  the  play,  and  may  be  regarded  as  an  acting 
personage ;  in  Euripides  its  presence  is  more  acci- 
dental— it  expounds  the  dogmas  and  opinions  of  the 
poet,  but  takes  no  part  in  the  action,  and  in  tragedies 
it  might  be  entirely  left  out  without  injury.  In  Sopho- 
cles alone  the  chorus  and  dialogue  are  harmoniously 
balanced.  Corresponding  to  these  changes  in  the 
position  of  the  chorus  was  the  amount  assigned  to 
them  for  declamation.  We  may  say  in  general  that 
the  chorus  sang  an  entrance  song  (irdpo^o^i),  and 
afterwards  during  the  further  course  of  the  play 
choric  songs  to  mark  pauses  in  the  action,  ac- 
companied by  marching,  but  without  leaving  the 
orchestra,  and  these  were  called  standing  songs 
(errao  t/m) ;  these  long  odes  divided  the  drama  into  a 
series  of  parts,  called  episodes  (eVeto-o&a),  which  may 


414  GREEK  LIFE  AT  HOME. 

be  compared  to  our  acts,  since  the  action  stops  during 
the  song,  and  the  spectator  has  time  to  collect  himself 
and  to  let  what  he  has  heard  and  seen  act  upon  him, 
Avhile  the  song  continued  through  the  interval  helps 
him  to  keep  the  impression  produced  by  the  action, 
or  else  prepares  him  for  what  is  to  foUow. 

The  older  comedy,  of  which  Aristophanes  is  the 
chief  representative,  made  use  of  chorus  and  dialogue 
in  the  same  way  as  tragedy.  Its  subjects  referred  to 
actual  life,  and  dealt  with  political,  social,  and 
literary  questions,  and  others  of  universal  interest, 
but  in  a  fantastic  manner,  with  the  most  eccentric 
masques  and  absurd  contrivances,  dealing  out  hits  all 
round  with  the  wildest  licence,  and  sparing  neither 
the  common  citizen  nor  the  most  powerful  and  exalted 
personages.  The  part  played  by  the  chorus  differed 
in  many  respects  from  that  undertaken  in  tragedy; 
the  comic  chorus  very  often  stepped  entirely  outside 
the  action,  and,  as  the  mouthpiece  of  the  poet,  who 
used  this  opportunity  to  bring  his  political  or  other 
opinions  before  the  public,  to  fight  out  personal 
quarrels,  and,  in  general,  to  say  whatever  he  pleased, 
it  directed  itself  to  the  public ;  such  are  those  comic 
choruses  which  bear  the  name  Parabasis.  The 
comic  chorus  was  also  adequately  distinguished  from 
the  tragic,  both  in  the  difference  of  costume  and  in 
the  number  of  its  members ;  the  latter  were  generally 
only  twelve,  and  the  former  twice  as  many.  Again, 
the  dances  and  rhythmic  movements  of  the  comic 
choruses  differed  greatly  from  those  of  the  tragic. 
But  even  during  the  lifetime  of  Aristophanes,  the 
transformation  of  the  comedy  began  in  its  outer  form 
as  well  as  in  its  real  nature.  The  outer  change  con- 
sisted in  the  abolition  of  the  chorus,  the  expenditure 
of  which  the  citizens  were  no  longer  willing  to  defray, 


THE   THEATRE.  415 

and  thus  an  excellent  opportunity  was  lost  of  saying 
rough  truths  with  a  laughing  face,  and  the  way  was 
paved  for  a  gradual  change  of  subject.  The  change 
was  accomplished  by  the  so-called  newer  Attic 
Comedy,  which  had  no  chorus,  and,  instead  of  politi- 
cal or  social  satire,  took  as  its  subject  pictures  from 
Athenian  life,  love  intrigues,  comic  misunderstand- 
ings, etc.,  and,  in  fact,  more  closely  resembled  our 
modern  comedies.  Then  the  lyric  element  naturally 
vanished,  which  in  the  older  comedy,  as  in  tragedy, 
appeared  not  only  in  the  chorus  but  also  in  the 
dramatic  performance  of  the  actors  ;  the  action  was 
presented  only  by  dialogue,  and  the  musical  element, 
which  had  formerly  played  a  very  important  part  in 
comedy,  was  confined  to  accompaniment  of  the  recita- 
tion, and  thus  became  entirely  subordinate. 

The  satyric  drama  is  the  one  in  which  we  can  trace 
the  fewest  changes,  but  it  had  only  a  short  exist- 
ence. It  was  invented  by  Pratinas,  a  contemporary  of 
Aeschylus,  probably  with  the  intention  of  compensat- 
ing the  public,  who  must  have  sadly  missed  the 
popular  sports  which  had  formerly  enlivened  the 
celebration  of  the  Dionysia,  and  to  satisfy  their  desire 
for  coarser  fare.  At  first  the  satyric  drama  seems  to 
have  preceded  the  tragedies,  but  this  was  soon 
changed.  In  the  best  period  of  the  drama  we  never 
find  satyric. plays  alone  wi the/at  tragedies  preceding 
them ;  they  were  so  essentially  a  part  of  the  tragedy 
that  we  only  hear  of  tragic  writers  as  composers  of 
satyric  dramas.  The  best  period  of  the  satyric  drama 
was  the  time,  of  Pratinas  and  Aeschylus ;  Sophocles 
and  Euripides,  too,  composed  them — one  by  the  latter 
has  come  down  to  us,  the  "  Cyclops  " — but  at  that 
time  its  best  period  was  already  over,  since  it  no 
longer  formed  the  necessary  conclusion  of  a  dramatic 


416  GREEK   LIFE    AT   HOME. 

tetralogy.  Still,  satyric  dramas  retained  their  position 
on  the  stage  until  the  second  century,  and,  in  fact, 
the  Alexandrine  poets  made  a  fresh  attempt  to  con- 
nect the  satyric  drama  with  tragedies  in  a  tetralogy. 
We  know  very  little  about  the  subject  of  these  later 
satyric  dramas.  The  titles  of  Alexandrine  plays  that 
have  come  down  to  us  show  that  at  that  time  actual 
life  was  introduced,  though  the  mythological  subjects 
which  had  formed  the  sole  basis  of  the  ancient  satyric 
drama  were  also  used. 

The  ancient  drama,  under  which  we  include 
tragedy,  satyric  drama,  and  comedy,  was  a  combina- 
tion of  three  arts — poetry,  music,  and  dancing.  The 
last  was,  as  a  rule,  confined  to  the  chorus,  and  it  very 
seldom  happened  that  an  actor  in  the  play  performed 
a>  dance,  but  the  musical  part  belonged  not  only  to 
the  chorus  but  also  to  the  actors ;  for  though  the 
usual  dialogue  consisted  merely  in  recitation,  yet 
there  were  long  passages  in  the  purely  dramatic  part 
which  were  not  declaimed  by  the  actors,  but  sung. 
Our  modern  writers  express  very  different  opinions 
about  the  mode  in  which  the  dialogues  were  recited. 
It  appears  to  us  most  probable  that  in  comedy  there 
was,  as  a  rule,  only  speaking,  without  any  musical 
accompaniment ;  while  in  tragedy  continuous  musical 
composition  was  introduced  alternating  with  dramatic 
speech — that  is,  spoken  recitation,  accompanied  by 
music — and  even  with  simple  declamation.  Then 
there  were  also  solo  songs  by  the  actors,  of  which  the 
metre  was  lyric,  and  these  bore  some  resemblance  to 
the  airs  of  our  modern  opera ;  they  are  less  common 
in  the  older  tragedy  than  in  Euripides,  with  whom 
they  sometimes  take  a  disproportionately  large  place. 
There  were  also  musical  dialogues  between  the  actors 
and  chorus,  in  particular  its  leader.  The  instruments 


THE  THEATRE.  417 

used  for  accompaniment  were  the  lyre  and  cithara,  and 
also  the  flute.  The  stringed  instruments  were  used 
chiefly  for  striking  a  few  notes  like  the  chords  struck 
at  our  recitations ;  the  flute  only  indicated  the  chief 
notes,  and  accompanied  the  melody  of  the  chorus  and 
the  solo  song  either  at  the  same  height  or  one  or  two 
octaves  higher.  Flute  playing  accompanied  most  of 
the  choric  songs ;  with  the  chorus  entered  a  flute 
player,  who  always  took  his  place  on  the  thymele. 
In  later  tragedy  the  music,  which  had  formerly  been 
very  simple,  grew  more  elaborate  and  complicated ; 
several  flute  players  played  at  the  same  time,  and 
with  their  shrill  music  very  often  drowned  the  sing- 
ing; but  the  solo  performances  on  the  stage  were 
accompanied  by  only  a  single  flute. 

The  choregraphic  element  in  the  drama,  which  be- 
longed especially  to  the  chorus  in  tragedy,  consisted 
chiefly  in  marching  with  various  figures,  much  like 
our  modern  polonaise.  The  dances  in  comedy  were 
much  more  lively  and  often  of  a  lascivious  character, 
and  those  of  a  satyric  chorus  were  also  of  a  burlesque 
nature.  But,  doubtless,  the  choric  dancing  consisted 
not  merely  in  certain  regular  movements  of  the  feet 
adapted  to  the  music,  but  also  in  rhythmic  motions  of 
the  whole  body,  and  especially  of  the  hands  and  arms, 
so  that  their  dancing  must  have  somewhat  resembled 
our  modern  ballet.  It  is  not  easy  to  get  any  complete 
conception  of  it;  the  later  hypotheses  are  by  no 
means  proved,  and  many  strange  statements  have 
been  made  about  the  recitation  of  the  chorus,  the 
division  of  verses  and  words  of  the  song  among  the 
serni-chorus,  leaders,  or  individual  members.  In  any 
case  the  task  of  the  chorus  was  no  easy  one,  since  the 
members  were  not  professional  artists  like  the  actors, 
but  amateurs,  who  had  to  be  specially  trained  for 
o 


418  GREEK   LIFE  AT  HOME. 

each  performance.    This  was  due  to  the  institution 
of  the  Choragia. 

In  ancient  times  the  equipment  and  performance 
of  plays  was  not,  as  afterwards,  a  duty  of  the  State ; 
the  poet  undertook  the  expenses,  and  tried  to  cover 
them  by  entrance  money.  But  when  the  theatrical 
representation  became  a  regular  part  of  the  Dionysiac 
festivals,  the  State  took  the  matter  in  its  own  hands, 
and  arranged  things  in  such  a  way  that  the  expenses 
for  the  chorus  were  undertaken  by  some  wealthy 
citizen  as  a  liturgy,  while  the  rest  of  the  expenses 
were  defrayed  by  the  State.  This  liturgy  was  called 
Choragia,  because  originally  the  person  who  defrayed 
the  expenses  also  trained  and  led  the  chorus.  For 
the  various  choric  performances  required  at  the  many 
festivals — since  besides  tragic  and  comic  choruses  there 
were  also  cyclic  and  other  choral  representations — each 
tribe  chose  its  "  choragus,"  and  this  was  done  a  year 
in  advance,  because  the  preparations  required  a  great 
deal  of  time.  If  a  poet  wanted  to  perform  one  of  his 
dramas  at  a  festival,  he  need  not  consider  how  to  pro- 
cure the  necessary  actors,  but  only  how  to  get  his 
chorus.  For  this  purpose  he  addressed  himself  to 
that  archon  whose  duty  it  was  to  make  the  arrange- 
ments for  the  festival  in  question,  and  begged  him  to 
assign  him  a  choragus.  It  appears  to  have  been  in 
the  power  of  this  official  to  accept  or  refuse  the  play. 
Probably  the  poets  handed  in  the  manuscript  of  their 
plays.  The  only  limitations  in  applying  were  that 
the  poet  must  be  a  citizen,  and  of  unstained  reputa- 
tion; and  in  comedy,  on  account  of  its  political 
character,  he  must  be  of  a  certain  age — thirty  years, 
according  to  most  of  the  statements.  If  the  archon 
accepted  the  drama,  he  assigned  the  poet  one  of 
^be  choragi,  either  by  election  or  lot  It  was  by  no 


THE  THEATRE.  419 

means  a  matter  of  indifference  whether  this  was 
required  for  tragedy  or  comedy;  for  at  the  time  when 
they  competed  with  tetralogies,  tragedy  involved  at 
least  as  much  expense  as  did  comedy  with  its  larger 
chorus.  It  is  probable,  therefore,  that  the  choragi  were 
sometimes  assisted  by  the  State,  especially  as  in  later 
times,  when  the  glory  of  Athens  had  departed,  and  its 
citizens  were  no  longer  so  rich,  it  became  more  and 
more  difficult  to  find  people  ready  to  undertake  these 
great  expenses ;  and  in  later  times  it  was  not 
unusual  for  several  choragi  together  to  undertake  a 
chorus. 

The  first  duty  of  the  choragus  was  to  collect  the 
necessary  number  of  persons  and  to  pay  those  who 
were  not  bound  to  appear  unpaid.  He  had  also  to 
choose  and  pay  a  chorus  teacher,  who  had  to  train  the 
chorus  (xppo8iSd<rKa\os'),  and  usually  undertook  the 
place  of  chorus-leader  at  the  performance.  In  former 
times,  when  this  instruction  of  the  chorus  was  not  a 
profession  as  it  was  later  on,  and  the  poet  often  helped 
in  the  training,  the  choragus  frequently  trained  the 
chorus  himself,  and  even  appeared  as  their  leader  at 
the  performance ;  but  in  later  times  this  was  unusual 
The  choragus  had  also  to  procure,  or  if  necessary  hire, 
a  place  for  the  training  of  the  chorus,  to  keep  the 
members  during  the  time  of  training,  and  to  provide 
them  with  festive  garments  and  wreaths  for  the  per- 
formance. It  rested  with  him  to  spend  a  large  or  a 
small  amount  for  this  last  purpose,  but  a  choragus 
who  equipped  a  comic  chorus  economically,  risked 
being  made  the  subject  of  the  poet's  sarcasm  on 
some  future  occasion,  and  in  the  allotment  of  prizes, 
too,  the  appearance  of  the  chorus  would  be  con- 
sidered, as  well  as  the  manner  in  which  it  performed 
its  task. 


420  GREEK  LIFE   AT  HOME. 

The  chorus-members  were  usually  free  citizens ; 
strangers  were  jealously  excluded.  Their  task  was  by 
no  means  a  light  one ;  bodily  dexterity  wa«  required 
for  the  dances,  and  good  musical  training,  good  de- 
livery and  comprehension  of  the  poetic  text  were 
necessary  in  order  to  give  a  satisfactory  representation 
of  the  poet's  work  before  the  keenly  critical  Attic 
public.  It  is,  therefore,  natural  that  a  good  choragus 
took  considerable  trouble  to  procure  a  good  chorus, 
the  rather  as  the  choragia  was  a  contest  in  which  not 
only  the  poet  but  also  the  choragi  contended  for  the 
prize.  Besides  those  already  mentioned,  the  choragi 
had  also  other  duties :  to  procure  the  requisites,  such 
as  decoration  for  the  side-scenes,  perhaps  even  to 
supply  sacrificial  animals  if  they  were  required  in  the 
play.  In  later  times,  when  the  chorus  had  lost  its 
importance,  and  the  expenses  were  less  considerable, 
the  choragus  had  also  to  supply  the  dresses  of  the 
actors,  though  this  was  never  the  case  in  the  best 
period  of  the  drama.  In  fact,  as  we  may  learn  from 
the  inscriptions,  a  complete  change  in  the  choragia 
took  place  in  the  Hellenistic  period.  It  became  the 
custom  for  the  people  to  choose  presidents  of  con- 
tests (cuya)vo0eTai),  whose  duty  it  was  to  provide  for 
the  musical  competitions  at  the  Dionysia  and  other 
festivals.  They  had  to  attend  to  the  regular  and 
suitable  performance  of  the  contests,  to  supply  certain 
sacrificial  animals,  etc. ;  this  was  often  a  very  expen- 
sive undertaking,  and,  like  all  officials,  they  had  to 
make  a  statement  concerning  their  office  at  the  con- 
clusion of  its  duration.  This  institution  in  a  way 
placed  the  choragia  in  the  hands  of  the  people,  who 
transferred  their  duties  to  the  presidents,  and  these 
had  then  to  equip  all  the  choruses,  which  were  no 
longer  so  numerous  as  they  had  been  formerly.  Thia 


THE   THEATRE.  421 

innovation  was  necessitated  by  the  fact  that  the 
number  of  rich  families  of  whom  these  pecuniary 
sacrifices  could  be  demanded,  had  become  very  small, 
and  these  now  supplied  the  presidents.  This  change 
in  the  arrangements  of  the  choragia  seems  to  have 
taken  place  under  the  rule  of  Demetrius  of  Phalerum, 
towards  the  end  of  the  fourth  century  RC. 

It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  in  the  ancient  theatre 
women  never  appeared  on  the  stage,  and  all  women's 
parts  were  presented  by  men ;  we  have  also  noted  the 
fact  that  there  was  at  first  only  a  single  actor,  who 
represented  various  parts  one  after  another,  and  en- 
tered into  a  dialogue  with  the  leader  of  the  chorus, 
and  that  Aeschylus  added  a  second,  and  Sophocles  a 
third.  Originally  the  poet  himself  appeared  as  actor, 
and  when  there  were  several,  actors,  as  protagonist — 
that  is  he  represented  the  chief  part.  When  Sophocles, 
who  had  himself  appeared  a  few  times,  abandoned 
this  custom,  it  gradually  fell  into  disuse,  and  the  Hrst 
actor,  as  well  as  the  two  others,  was  supplied  to  the 
poet  by  the  State.  As  a  rule,  the  actors  were  allotted 
to  the  poets  by  lot ;  it  seems,  however,  that  before  the 
State  undertook  to  pay  an  actor,  he  had  to  submit  to 
examination,  and  that  only  those  who  had  already 
appeared,  and  whose  performances  were  well  known, 
were  excluded  from  this  examination.  The  State, 
then,  engaged  for  each  festival  a  number  of  protag- 
onists, deuteragonists,  and  tritagonists,  corresponding 
to  the  number  of  poets  contending ;  thus,  if  there 
were  three  poets  competing,  they  required  nine  actors, 
supposing  the  same  actors  continued  to  perform 
throughout  the  whole  tetralogy,  of  which  we  cannot 
be  certain.  The  lot  assigned  to  each  of  the  poets 
one  out  of  the  three  classes  ;  still,  we  know  that  some 
poets  always  had  the  same  protagonist,  who  appeared 


422  GREEK  LIFE  AT  HOME. 

in  all  their  plays,  and  for  whom,  in  fact,  they  some* 
times  wrote  a  special  part;  therefore,  it  must  have 
been  customary  for  poets  who  had  already  been  vic- 
torious to  ask  for  a  particular  protagonist  without 
drawing  lots,  and  this  custom  probably  became  the 
rule  afterwards.  We  cannot,  however,  say  how  the 
two  others  were  chosen. 

The  parts  of  the  play  were  now  divided  between 
these  three  actors ;  the  chief  part,  which,  as  a  rule,  was 
the  most  difficult,  fell  to  the  protagonist ;  the  next  in 
importance — viz.,  the  one  which  was  brought  into 
the  closest  connection  with  the  chief  person,  fell  to 
the  deuteragonist ;  the  tritagonist  undertook  unim- 
portant parts,  such  as  messengers,  heralds,  etc.,  and 
these  actors  of  the  lowest  class  did  not  stand  in  par- 
ticular estimation  with  the  public.  But  as  the  plays 
contained  more  than  three  parts,  each  actor  had  to 
undertake  several,  and  therefore,  even  while  composing 
a  play,  the  poet  had  to  be  careful  that  the  actors,  if 
they  had  to  appear  in  another  part,  had  sufficient  time 
for  change  of  costume,  and  that  the  absence  of  an 
actor  who  was  to  be  used  for  another  part  should  be 
in  some  way  explained.  There  were,  however,  plays 
in  which  it  was  absolutely  impossible  to  manage  with 
three  actors,  and  for  these  there  was  a  contrivance 
about  which  the  exponents  of  passages  referring  to  it 
hold  very  different  opinions,  and,  indeed,  there  seem 
to  be  mistakes  or  misrepresentations  in  the  authors 
themselves.  It  is  most  probable  that  when  a  poet 
required  more  than  the  three  actors  assigned  him  by 
the  State  he  applied  to  the  choragus,  and  came  to 
an  agreement  with  him ;  he  then  supplied  a  fourth 
actor,  or  even  a  fifth,  since  it  was  only  small  parts 
that  had  to  be  thus  undertaken,  and,  if  necessary, 
the  choragus  also  provided  a  second, ,  or  minor, 


THE  THEATRE.  423 

chorus,    such    as    was    required    in    certain    plays 


There  were  also  dumb  personages, 
or  statists,  called  also  "spear-bearers,"  since  these 
parts  were  frequently  merely  standing  parts.  We  do 
not  know  whether  the  State  or  the  choragus  paid  for 
these.  We  have,  in  fact,  little  information  about  the 
payment  given  to  the  actors,  which  must  have  been, 
however,  different  in  proportion  to  their  performances  ; 
in  the  Macedonian  period  celebrated  actors  received 
very  high  pay.  In  the  Hellenistic  period  a  complete 
transformation  took  place  in  acting.  When  the  chorus 
was  abolished,  and  the  representation  of  dramas  in 
consequence  became  easier,  and  took  place  at  other 
festivals  as  well  as  the  Dionysia,  unions  of  actors  were 
formed,  calling  themselves  "Dionysiac  artists,"  con- 
cerning which  the  inscriptions  give  us  a  good  deal  of 
interesting  information.  A  number  of  these  companies 
combined  together  into  sacred  guilds,  which  had  their 
seat  in  the  large  towns,  and  sent  their  members  in 
companies  into  small  towns  and  also  into  the  provinces 
as  far  as  Asia  Minor,  for  festive  representations.  We 
are  best  acquainted  with  the  arrangements  of  the 
Dionysiac  artist  company  of  Teos,  an  Ionic  town  on 
the  coast  of  Lydia.  This  not  only  appeared  in  Asia 
Minor,  but  had  also  rights  in  Delphi,  Thebes,  and 
Thespiae.  Ft  numbered  'a  great  many  members,  not 
only  actors,  but  also  writers  of  tragedies,  comedies,  and 
satyric  dramas,  epic  poems,  and  encomia  ;  composers, 
musicians,  dancers,  machinists,  decorators,  wardrobe 
owners,  etc.  They  also  instituted  a  dramatic  musical 
school,  a  kind  of  Conservatorium,  in  which  pupils  from 
various  parts  of  Greece  were  trained,  and  usually  in 
turn  became  members  of  the  guild.  It  is  very  interest- 
ing to  examine  the  details,  management,  inner  organi- 
sation, and  life  of  the  members  of  these  actors'  guilds 


424  GREEK   LIFE  AT  HOME. 

in  the  Alexandrine  period,  but  unfortunately  space 
does  not  permit  us  to  do  so  here. 

All  the  arrangements  already  described  show 
strong  contrasts  between  ancient  and  modern  theatres, 
and  perhaps  there  is  nothing  which  strikes  us  as  so 
extraordinary  as  the  Greek  theatrical  costume,  and 
especially  the  appearance  of  actors  in  masks.  It  is 
impossible  for  us  to  understand  this  complete  dis- 
regard of  expression  and  change  in  representing  feel- 
ings, and  this  perpetual  stare  of  the  unchanging 
mask.  This  curious  custom  has  been  explained  in 
many  different  ways.  It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that 
the  Greek  theatres  were  too  large  for  the  play  of  an 
actor's  expression  to  be  observed,  and  that  the  coarse 
features  of  the  mask  were  arranged  with  a  view  to 
this  distance,  in  which  their  want  of  change  would  be 
less  striking.  Since  they  played  in  broad  daylight,  in 
the  sharp  clear  light  of  a  southern  sky,  the  spectators, 
even  in  the  most  distant  places,  could  have  followed 
the  play  of  the  actor's  features,  especially  since  the 
ancients  had  better  eyes  than  our  present  generation. 
Nor  is  it  correct  to  suppose  that  the  masks  were 
required  in  order  that  the  funnel-shaped  contrivance 
applied  to  its  mouth  should  strengthen  the  sound;  for 
the  acoustics  in  the  Greek  theatres  were  usually  so 
good  that  the  very  slightest  word  even  whispered  on 
the  stage  could  be  heard  in  the  auditorium.  Un- 
doubtedly it  would  have  been  impossible  without 
masks  for  the  same  actor  to  undertake  many  parts  in 
quick  succession;  but  at  the  same  time  we  may  ask 
whether  they  would  have  held  so  strictly  to  this 
system  of  dividing  all  the  parts  among  three  actors  if 
they  had  not  already  possessed  the  masks,  and  thus 
the  possibility  of  abiding  within  these  limitations. 
The  introduction  of  real  characters,  whose  features 


THE   THEATRE.  425 

were  to  be  faithfully  imitated  was  also  facilitated  by 
the  masks,  but  good  mimics  could  achieve  this  even 
without,  as  examples  on  the  modern  stage  have 
shown.  Consequently,  none  of  these  reasons  really 
explain  the  use  of  masks ;  in  reality  they  originated 
in  the  religious  customs  which  were  the  origin  of  the 
drama,  and  afterwards  were  simply  maintained  with 
many  other  relics  of  its  religious  origin,  as  people  had 
got  accustomed  to  them  and  found  them  convenient. 
It  had  formerly  been  the  practice  at  the  Dionysia, 
whence  the  drama  originated,  for  people  to  disguise 
their  faces  by  smearing  them  over  with  husks  of 
grapes,  etc.,  or  to  cover  them  up  completely,  or  dis- 
guise them  with  wreaths  of  ivy,  etc.  Instead  of  paint- 
ing and  covering  them  with  leaves  they  gradually 
began  to  use  pieces  of  linen,  at  first  quite  shapeless 
and  destined  only  to  cover  the  face  and  prevent 
recognition,  but  afterwards  by  imitating  human 
features,  these  developed  into  masks.  This  custom 
continued,  then,  as  sanctified  by  tradition,  and,  indeed, 
all  the  theatrical  arrangements  were  regarded  as  a 
sacred  ceremony  in  honour  of  Dionysus. 

The  theatrical  masks,  the  material  of  which  in 
later  times,  too,  was  linen,  covered  with  plaster  of 
Paris,  or  else  wood,  bark,  etc.,  differed  from  our  modern 
masks  in  covering  not  only  the  face,  but  the  whole 
head  of  the  actor.  The  actor  who  had  put  on  the 
mask  could,  of  course,  only  see  through  the  slits  for 
the  eyes,  and,  indeed,  it  sometimes  happened — and  in 
the  oldest  period  seems  to  have  been  common — that, 
instead  of  cutting  out  a  slit  for  the  whole  eye,  there 
was  only  one  for  the  pupil,  and  the  iris  was  repre- 
sented on  the  mask  itself,  and  coloured,  so  that  the 
actor  had  the  difficult  task  of  looking  only  through 
the  place  for  the  pupil ;  still,  as  the  dimensions  of  tha 


426  GREEK  LIFE   AT  HOME. 

masks  were  usually  larger  than  those  of  a  human 
face,  this  may  have  been  larger  than  his  own.  Of 
course,  the  masks  were  completely  painted  over ;  the 
eyebrows,  lips,  cheeks,  wrinkles,  etc.,  were  marked  •  the 
beard  and  hair  were  made  of  real  hair,  or  wool,  or 
some  other  succedaneum.  Some  of  the  tragic  masks 
had  a  high  bunch  of  hair  above  the  forehead  to 
increase  the  height ;  this  was  called  the  "  superficies  " 
(07*09),  and  its  object  was  mainly  to  increase  the 
height  of  the  actor  and  make  him  appear  of  greater 
size — an  object  at  which  many  other  peculiarities  of 
the  tragic  costume  also  aimed.  The  ears  were  not 
always  visible.  The  mouth  was  usually  open  very 
wide,  with  lips  and  sometimes  artificial  teeth.  The 
object  of  the  great  width  of  the  mouth  opening  was  to 
enable  the  actor  to  declaim  and  sing  unhindered.  The 
comic  masks  (see  below,  Figs.  156  and  157),  very  often 
had  a  funnel-shaped  mouth  opening,  which  gave  a 
very  grotesque  expression  to  the  whole  face,  and  may 
have  been  connected  with  some  special  technical 
object,  or  else  merely  destined  to  increase  the  comic 
effect  In  putting  on  the  masks  they  took  hold  of 
the  chin,  and  drew  them  on  from  bottom  to  top ;  they 
were  then  fastened  under  the  chin  with  strings,  and 
the  actor's  neck  was  almost  completely  covered  by 
the  mask  and  his  clothing;  hence  the  curious,  we 
might  almost  say  asthmatic,  impression  given  by  the 
pictures  of  ancient  actors. 

Generally  speaking,  we  may  distinguish  three  kinds 
of  masks,  according  to  the  three  kinds  of  drama — 
tragic,  comic,  and  satyric ;  and  it  is  not  difficult  among 
the  numerous  representations  of  masks  on  ancient 
works  of  art  to  distinguish  between  these  three  kinds, 
especially  since  the  expression  is,  as  a  rule,  decisive. 
In  the  tragic  masks  we  see  calm  solemnity,  deep  grieij 


428  GREEK   LIFE  AT  HOME. 

or  wild-  passion ;  every  feeling  is  expressed  on  a  largo 
and  usually  dignified  scale.  The  comic  masks,  on  the 
other  hand,  always  incline  to  caricature;  and  those 
used  for  the  satyric  drama,  since  they  were  meant  for 
satyrs,  naturally  represent  the  physiognomy  of  animals. 
But,  besides  these  general  indications,  there  were  a 
large  number  of  gradations — some  of  them  very  finely 
marked — which  proves  to  us  that  the  old  makers  of 
masks,  which  was  a  special  branch  of  trade,  thoroughly 
understood  their  work  and  also  human  physiognomy. 
In  olden  times  they  seem  to  have  made  the  masks 
specially  for  each  drama,  so  that  they  might  correspond 
exactly  to  the  characters.  This  was  the  case  in  tragedy 
as  well  as  in  the  older  comedy.  Aeschylus,  to  whom 
in  particular  innovations  and  inventions  hi  this  domain 
are  ascribed,  required  quite  new  masks  for  his  "  Eume- 
nides,"  which  had  never  before  appeared  on  the  stage ; 
as  did  Aristophanes  and  the  other  poets  of  the  older 
comedy  for  their  fantastic  characters — Frogs,  Clouds, 
Birds,  etc.,  as  also  for  the  real  personages  represented 
in  their  comedies,  such  as  Euripides,  Socrates,  Cleon, 
and  could  only  use  the  already  existing  masks  for  the 
usual  typical  figures  of  citizens  and  citizens'  wives, 
slaves,  etc.,  as  well  as  for  the  mythological  personages, 
Hercules,  Dionysus,  etc.  The  newer  Attic  comedy, 
with  its  typical  characters,  very  seldom  required 
specially-constructed  masks,  and  it  thus  became  the 
custom  for  the  properties  of  eveiy  stage  or  acting 
company  to  include  a  considerable  supply  of  character 
masks  of  every  kind,  which  in  most  cases  were  sufficient 
for  the  demand.  Consequently,  to  speak  simply  of 
tragic  or  comic  masks  is  to  express  ourselves  rather 
superficially  ;  for  though  an  actually  comic  mask — that 
is,  one  whose  absurdity  excites  to  laughter — could  never 
be  used  in  a  tragedy,  yet  there  were  serious  masks 


THE  THEATRE.  429 

might  be  used  in  a  comedy ;  and  it  would  be 
wrong  to  suppose  that  all  the  persons  in  a  comedy 
for  instance  by  Menander,  appeared  in  masks  which 
could  be  designated  as  specially  comic. 

Among  the  typical  masks  they  distinguish  between 
sex,  agev  and  differences  of  figure ;  thus  there  was  a 
mask  called  "  the  young  girl,"  another  "  the  thin  old 
woman,"  "  the  fat  old  woman,"  etc. ;  then  they  distin- 
guished according  to  the  colour  or  cut  of  the  hair  :  there 
was  the  "curly-headed  youth,"  the  "short-haired 
maiden,"  the  "  fair  man,"  the  "  grey  satyr,"  or  by  the 
beard :  the  "  man  with  a  long  beard,"  the  "  beardless 
satyr,"  or  by  the  complexion:  the  "brown  man,"  the 
"fan*  woman  with  flowing  hair,"  and  even  by  the  shape  of 
the  nose,  as  the  "  satyr  with  a  pug-nose."  Other  masks 
were  characterised  by  the  social  position  they  were  to 
represent,  such  as  "  the  old  housewife,"  "  the  country- 
man," "the  old  hetaera,"  "  the  soldier,"  "the  lady's  maid 
with  elaborate  coiffure,"  or  according  to  special  peculi- 
arities of  mind  or  character :  "  the  worthy  young 
man,"  "the  talkative  old  woman."  Even  varying  moods 
of  mind  or  feelings  were  represented  by  the  masks,  and 
it  is  probable  therefore,  that  when  an  important  change 
took  place  in  any  one  person,  the  actor  changed  his 
mask  behind  the  scenes.  The  writers  also  supply 
various  instances  to  show  the  different  means  by  which 
special  traits  of  character  were  represented.  One  of 
these  tokens  was  the  colour  of  the  complexion ;  a  brown 
complexion  characterised  healthy  men,  living  much 
out  of  doors,  or  devoting  themselves  to  physical  exer- 
cise; a  white  complexion  was  given  to  women  and 
to  delicate  or  effeminate  youths;  pale  or  yellowish 
to  invalids,  or  those  whose  mind  was  disordered  or 
suffering,  as  for  instance  unhappy  lovers.  The  colour 
and  expression  of  the  eyes  was  also  important ;  they 


430  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

distinguished  between  dull,  piercing,  dark,  gloomy, 
sad,  etc.,  and  all  this  was  not  represented  by  the  actor, 
but  was  already  indicated  in  the  mask.  The  eyebrows, 
too,  were  of  importance  ;  when  they  were  drawn  up  high 
they  indicated,  in  comedy,  pride  and  boastfulness,  and 
were  thus  allotted  to  parasites,  soldiers,  etc. ;  narrow 
eyebrows  indicated  seriousness  or  a  sad  state  of  mind. 
No  less  important  for  the  character  of  the  mask  was 
the  treatment  of  the  forehead,  nose,  etc.  To  explain 
all  this  we  give,  in  Figs.  154  and  155,  the  front  and 
side  view  of  a  tragic  terra-cotta  mask,  whose  wide- 
open  mouth,  staring  eyes,  brows  drawn  upwards,  and 
wrinkled  forehead  indicate  fear  and  terror.  A  con- 
trast to  these  is  the  comic  mask  (Figs.  156  and  157), 
with  the  funnel-shaped  mouth  opening,  the  pug-nose, 
squinting  eyes,  and  eyebrows  drawn  down  towards  the 
middle.  Similar  is  the  mask,  worn  by  the  comic  actor 
in  Fig.  158,  who  in  other  respects  appears  in  the 
costume  of  ordinary  life — that  is,  in  the  short  slave's 
dress — and  the  mask  of  the  comic  actor  in  Fig.  159  is 
a  similar  caricature. 

Besides  the  regular  masks,  from  which  the  actors 
chose  those  that  suited  their  part,  unless  the  poet  had 
already  prescribed  what  they  were  to  wear,  others 
were  in  later  times  adapted  for  extraordinary  situa- 
tions— for  personages  of  quite  abnormal  figure,  alle- 
gorical characters,  etc. — and  these  could  not  be  used 
for  ordinary  performances.  Tragedy  especially  was 
often  obliged  to  bring  unusual  masks  on  the  stage;  and 
the  comedy  of  Southern  Italy,  which  treated  mytho- 
logical subjects  in  grotesque  fashion,  may  have  occa- 
sionally required  quite  special  masks.  Thus,  on  the 
Pompeian  wall-painting  (Fig.  160),  which,  doubtless, 
was  copied  from  a  Greek  picture,  the  masks  relate  to 
the  legend  of  Andromeda ;  the  one  on  the  left  belongs 


432 


GREEK  LIFE  AT  HOME. 


to  a  youth  with  a  brown  complexion,  whose  winged 
cap  and  harp  resting  on 
the  ground  mark  him 
out  as  Perseus  ;  this  is  a 
special  mask,  and  so  is 
that  of  the  monster  in 
the  middle,  while  that 
of  Andromeda  above  on 
the  right,  and  the  others 
on  the  right  below,  which 
are  not  quite  distinct, 
may  easily  have  formed 
part  of  the  ordinary 
supply. 

Equally  strange  and 
different  from  the 
modern  was  the  rest  of 
the  costume  of  the  Greek 
stage.  Speaking  of 
tragic  equipment,  we 
may  characterise  the 
contrast  between  that 
day  and  our  own  by  say- 
ing that  Greeks,  in  the 
choice  of  their  tragic 
costume,  aimed  at  the 
type,  while  we  desire  to 
indicate  the  individual. 
In  theatrical  costume,  as 
in  art,  we  wish  to  repre- 
sent everything  with 
Fl°-  158'  historical  truth  ;  the 

history  of  costume  and 

fashion    is    a   subject   of  special  study   for  modern 
managers.      Ancient    tragedies    very    seldom 


THE   THEATRE.  433 

dealt  with  historical  subjects,  but  usually  with 
legends ;  therefore  a  costume  must,  as  it  were,  be 
invented  for  the  characters.  Art  could  assist  them 
but  little,  since  it  generally  represented  the  gods 
and  heroes  in  the  nude;  but  the  theatre,  which  at 
the  same  time  was  a  religious  institution  in  which 
all  the  co-operators  were  particip- 
ants in  the  celebration,  sought  its 
effects  chiefly  by  splendour  of  cos- 
tume. Thus  was  developed  the 
ordinary  tragic  dress,  which  be- 
longed neither  to  actuality  nor  to 
the  past,  but  was  an  ideal  costume 
most  closely  resembling  the  gar- 
ments of  religious  festivities. 
There  were  also  certain  special 
means  adopted  for  increasing  the 
height  of  the  actor  beyond  reality, 
but  we  must  not  suppose  that  this 
was  required  by  the  great  distance 
at  which*  the  actors  were  seen; 
these  attempts  at  magnifying  were 
rather  caused  by  the  desire  to 
make  the  actors  appear  super- 
human, heroic  personages,  excel- 
ling the  men  of  the  day  in  physical 
power  and  dignity,  just  as  the  wonderful  deeds  of  the 
Homeric  heroes  exceeded  the  weak  actions  of  their  de- 
scendants. The  requirements  of  costume  in  comedy 
were  somewhat  different ;  for  gods  and  heroes  the  same 
costume  was  used  as  in  tragedy,  but  slaves  or  persons  of 
ordinary  life  were  also  introduced,  and  these  could  not 
be  clad  in  solemn  garments.  It  is  difficult  to  find  a 
tixed  standard  in  comedy,  since  we  must  take  into 
account  not  only  the  difference  between  the  older  and 


FIG.  159. 


434  GREEK  LIFE  AT  HOME. 

the  newer  comedy,  but  also  the  comedy  outside  Attica 
— for  instance,  that  of  the  Sicyonians,  the  Tarentines, 
etc. — which  had  its  peculiar  character,  and,  doubtless, 
also  peculiar  dress,  just  as  the  "  Arlecchino  "  of  the 
Venetian  popular  comedy  appears  in  a  different  dress 
from  the  Florentine  "  Stenterello,"  and  the  Neapolitan 
"  Pulcinella,"  although  originally  they  were  all  three 
the  same  person.  A  special  costume  was  not  required 
for  the  satyric  chorus,  since  all  that  was  necessary 
here  was  to  imitate  as  well  as  possible  what  was 
represented  by  works  of  art.  In  stage  costume,  as 
in  that  of  real  life,  we  must  distinguish  between 
upper  and  lower  garments.  The  lower  garment  of 
the  tragic  actor,  as  well  as  of  the  chorus,  both  in 
male  and  female  parts,  was  the  long  chiton,  which 
was  worn  in  Attica  before  the  time  of  Pericles,  and 
traced  its  origin  to  Ionia ;  this  dress  was  maintained 
on  the  stage  because  it  was  especially  a  festive  gar- 
ment, and,  like  these  festive  garments,  the  theatrical 
dresses  were  many-coloured,  richly  adorned  with 
embroidery  or  borders,  and  often  very  costly,  if  a  rich 
choragus  desired  to  equip  his  chorus  splendidly.  As 
a  rule,  this  chiton  was  girded  in  the  old  fashion, 
which  we  see  also  in  the  cithara  players,  immediately 
under  the  shoulders,  thus  forming  a  very  high  waist. 
They  also  wore  long  sleeves  reaching  down  to  the 
hands,  a  peculiarity  of  festive  costume  which  had  dis- 
appeared from  real  life.  To  increase  the  magnificence, 
the  chiton  often  had  a  train,  not  only  for  women  but 
even  for  men.  The  upper  dress  was  either  the  hima- 
tion  and  chlamys,  common  in  ordinary  life,  or  else 
garments  peculiar  to  the  stage,  of  which  a  number 
of  names  have  come  down  to  us,  but  no  exact 
details  of  their  shape  and  mode  of  wearing.  Here, 
too,  colour  was  the  rule;  black  clothing  was  worn 


436  GREEK  LIFE  AT  HOME. 

by  wretched  and  persecuted  people.  In  their  case, 
of  course,  the  festive  costume,  which  would  have 
formed  too  sharp  a  contrast  with  their  parts, 
was  discarded ;  Philoctetes,  Telephus,  etc.,  did  not 
appear  in  royal  splendour,  but  in  simple  garments 
or  even  in  rags.  We  may  remember  the  description 
given  in  the  "  Oedipus  at  Colonus  "  of  the  appearance 
of  the  unhappy  exiled  prince ;  and  Aristophanes'  jokes 
shoAv  us  that  Euripides  aimed  specially  at  attracting 
the  pity  of  the  spectators  by  wretched  beggars'  dress. 
The  dress  of  the  women,  generally  speaking,  was 
similar ;  perhaps  there  was  a  difference  in  the  "mode 
in  which  the  upper  garment  was  put  on.  Subordinate 
personages  in  tragedy — messengers,  satellites,  slaves, 
etc. — wore  the  short  chiton ;  paidogogoi  appeared  in 
the  barbaric  dress  already  described ;  and  thus  variety 
in  the  appearance  of  the  actors  was  produced,  while 
the  ceremonious  dress  was  reserved  for  the  most  im- 
portant personages.  The  ivory  statuette  of  an  actor, 
of  which  two  sides  are  represented  in  Figs.  161  and 
162,  gives  an  excellent  notion  of  the  tragic  costume. 
He  wears  a  long  chiton,  with  sleeves  (painted  blue  in 
the  original)  decorated  with  three  broad  stripes,  de- 
scending from  the  girdle  to  his  feet,  and  with  horizontal 
stripes  round  his  sleeves.  The  mask,  with  the  high 
superficies,  bears  an  expression  of  wild  anger ;  the 
size  of  the  slits  for  the  eyes  is  remarkable,  and  we  can 
see  through  them  the  eyes  of  the  actor,  as  well  as  a 
piece  of  the  face  immediately  round  them.  As  a  rule, 
only  the  pupil  so  appears  in  Greek  masks,  and  there- 
fore the  editor  (C.  Robert)  surmises  that  this  points  to 
a  Roman  custom  of  the  Imperial  age.  This  statuette 
is  also  interesting  for  the  shape  of  the  "  cothurnus," 
the  usual  foot-gear  of  the  tragic  actor.  The  cothurnus 
was  a  tolerably  high  shoe,  but  made  to  fit  either  foot', 


THE  THEATRE. 


437 


the  tragic  cothurnus  was  especially  distinguished  by 


FIG.  161. 


FIG.  162. 


very  high  cork  solos,  which  considerably  increased  the 
height  of  the  wearer.     As  may  here  be  seen,  the  foot 


438  GREEK  LIFE  AT  HOME. 

with  the  actual  cothurnus  is  hidden  under  the  dress, 
only  the  high  soles  are  visible  beneath  it.  When  the 
height  of  the  actor  was  thus  increased  by  the  super- 
ficies and  cothurnus,  it  was  necessary  to  give  a  larger 
appearance  to  the  rest  of  the  figure ;  for  this  purpose 
they  stuft'ed  themselves  out  with  cushions,  and  wore 
gloves  with  long  fingers,  which  seem  to  have  been 
fastened  to  the  sleeves,  etc.  The  whole  produced  an 
effect  that  would  hardly  have  suited  our  taste,  but  in 
reality  was  not  nearly  so  strange  as  the  costume  of 
the  heroes  of  Corneille  and  Racine,  to  whose  court 
dress  and  long  wigs  the  seventeenth  century  seems  to 
have  taken  no  exception.  Of  course,  there  were  various 
necessary  additions  to  this  costume :  arms  for  the 
warriors,  a  sceptre  for  the  kings,  a  lion's  skin  and  club 
for  Hercules,  and  a  fawn  skin  for  Artemis,  etc.  In 
comedy  the  women  probably  appeared  in  the  costume 
of  ordinary  life.  For  the  male  characters,  except  the 
fantastic  parts,  the  short  chiton  seems  to  have  been 
commonest,  especially  for  persons  of  the  lower  classes ; 
and  the  slaves,  who  were  never  absent  from  the  newer 
comedy,  wore  the  "  exomis,"  the  common  workman's 
dress.  The  skin  garments  of  the  country  people  were 
also  worn,  and  knapsacks  and  knotty  sticks  completed 
their  equipment.  In  later  comedy  special  characters 
were  marked  out  by  the  colour  of  the  dresses :  thus, 
the  parasites  wore  black  or  green  dresses  ;  others, 
again,  coloured  dresses  with  cloaks ;  slaves,  the  white 
exomis ;  youths,  the  white  chiton  with  purple  border : 
cooks,  unfulled  garments,  etc.  Similarly  the  feminine 
characters  were  marked  out :  there  were  the  old  \vonun. 
the  daughters  of  citizens,  the  rich  heiresses,  hetaerae, 
etc.  In  the  comedy  of  Southern  Italy,  the  costume  of 
which  is  represented  on  many  vase  paintings,  the  actors 
of  male  parts  usually  wear  a  closely-fitting  dress, 


440  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

covering  the  legs  as  far  as  the  ankles,  and  the  arms 
down  to  the  hand,  and  over  this  a  tight-fitting  tunic, 
leaving  arms  and  legs  free  (compare  Fig.  163).  Here 
it  is  evident  that  the  lower  garment  takes  the  place 
of  our  tricot;  the  arms  and  legs  are  supposed  to  be 
bare.  If  the  object  was  to  represent  absolute  nudity, 
the  tunic  was  replaced  by  a  close-ntting  vest,  usually 
provided  with  a  false  stuffing,  on  which  the  breasts  and 
navel  were  marked.  To  this  was  sometimes  added  the 
comic  phallus,  a  remnant  of  the  old  coarse  popular 
jokes,  in  which  the  Older  Comedy  frequently  indulged. 
But  in  the  New  Comedy  it  fell-  gradually  into  disuse, 
and  was  entirely  absent  from  the  representations  of 
ordinary  life,  though  introduced  into  farces  which 
burlesqued  the  myths  and  tales  of  the  heroes. 

We  give  here  several  examples  of  pictures  from 
ancient  comedy.  In  Fig.  163,  the  meaning  of  which 
is  not  clear,  the  stage  has  on  its  left  side  a  scaffolding 
covered  in  with  a  roof,  to  which  a  staircase  leads  ;  on 
the  floor  of  this  erection  lie  a  bundle  of  beds  or  car- 
pets, a  cap,  and  a  litter.  Chiron,  whose  name  appears 
on  the  plate,  is  climbing  up  the  staircase  with  diffi- 
culty, and  bending  down  leaning  on  his  rough  knotty 
stick ;  a  slave  is  pushing  him  up  from  behind,  while 
Xanthias,  standing  on  the  top  of  the  stairs,  seizes  hold 
of  his  head  as  though  to  draw  him  up.  In  the  back- 
ground we  see  two  not  specially  attractive  nymphs,  of 
whom  only  the  upper  part  is  visible ;  these  again  are 
designated  in  the  inscription  ;  the  youth  on  the  right, 
in  the  himation,  and  without  a  mask,  is  not  one  of 
the  actors.  Possibly  this  is  a  representation  of  the 
sick  Chiron  seeking  healing  at  a  sanctuary  of  the 
nymphs.  The  costume  and  the  tricots,  as  well  as  the 
grotesque  masks,  are  worthy  of  notice.  The  vase 
painting  in  Fig.  164  has  not  been  satisfactorily 


4-42  GREEK   LIFE  AT  HOME. 

explained.  It  is  evident  that  Hercules  is  engaged 
in  some  love  adventure,  as  is  proved  by  the  lion's  skin 
in  which  the  actor,  who  is  jesting  with  a  girl,  is 
dressed,  and  the  club  which  rests  beside  him.  The 
figure  on  the  right  probably  represents  an  old  woman ; 
on  the  left  is  a  man  contemplating  the  scene.  With 
the  exception  of  the  girl  and  the  woman  in  the 
middle,  the  masks  are  extreme  caricatures ;  the  cos- 
tume of  the  two  men  resembles  that  in  Fig.  163. 
Fig.  165,  a  Pompeian  wall-painting,  may  be  here  com- 
pared, because  it  evidently  imitates  Greek  prototypes, 
and  the  scene  represented  in  the  centre  belongs  to 
the  later  comedy.  The  one  actor  with  a  curious  head- 
dress and  a  spear  seems  to  be  a  sort  of  Miles 
Gloriosus,  the  man  in  a  reverential  position  speaking 
to  him  a  parasite.  The  three  youths  who  stand  near 
wear  no  masks,  and  it  is  therefore  doubtful  whether 
they  are  to  be  regarded  as  part  of  the  representation 
hi  the  character,  perhaps,  of  statists,  who  may  have 
appeared  without  masks.  Two  old  men  to  the  right 
and  left  of  the  central  scene,  seated  on  a  somewhat 
lower  plane,  and  leaning  on  their  knotty  sticks,  with 
serious  official  mien,  are  doubtless  theatrical  police, 
who  had  to  keep  order  during  the  performance.  It  is 
not  easy  to  say  what  place  in  the  theatre  they  were 
supposed  to  occupy. 

We  gain  some  information  concerning  the  costume 
of  the  satyric  drama  from  a  very  interesting  vase 
painting,  which  cannot,  however,  for  various  reasons, 
be  represented  here,  and  which  we  propose,  there- 
fore, shortly  to  describe.  This  represents  the  per- 
sonages taking  part  in  a  satyric  drama  before  the 
commencement  of  the  performance ;  a  group  in 
the  centre  of  the  top  row  does  not  belong  to  the 
performers:  this  represents  Dionysus  resting  on  a 


444  GREEK   LIFE  AT  HOME. 

couch  with  Ariadne,  near  him  is  a  woman  holding 
up  a  mask,  probably  a  Muse,  and  the  little  Eros 
Himeros.  To  the  right  and  left  of  this  group,  which 
must  be  regarded  as  the  ideal  scene,  stand  three 
actors,  each  holding  his  mask  in  his  hand  (the  strings 
by  which  they  were  held  are  visible) ;  next  on  the 
right  is  Hercules,  who  may  be  recognised  by  his  lion's 
skin,  club,  and  quiver;  near  him  is  the  "  Papposilenus." 
his  whole  body  covered  with  skin,  a  panther's  skin 
thrown  over  his  left  arm,  and  holding  a  short  staff; 
we  do  not  know  the  name  of  the  third  actor  on 
the  left.  The  chorus  of  satyrs  consists  of  eleven 
persons,  of  whom  only  one  has  as  yet  put  on  his 
mask.  That  one  is  practising  a  dance  in  preparation 
for  the  performance.  Most  of  the  chorus  are  dressed 
alike  with  only  a  little  covering  of  skin  round  their 
loins,  and  the  short  satyr's  tail ;  one  of  them,  however, 
has  a  little  garment  of  some  material  with  a  pattern, 
and  another  wears  an  embroidered  dress  with  hima- 
tion  ;  he  might  be  taken  for  an  actor  if  his  mask  did 
not  bear  the  satyric  type  like  the  rest,  the  pug  nose 
and  the  pointed  ears.  In  the  middle  of  the  lowest 
row  two  musicians  are  represented :  a  splendidly 
dressed  flute  player  seated,  in  front  of  him  stands  a 
cithara  player.  Further  to  the  left  sits  a  young  man 
holding  a  roll  in  his  hand,  another  roll  lies  on  the 
ground,  a  lyre  is  visible  behind  him.  In  spite  of  his 
striking  youthfulness,  this  young  man  is  probably  the 
teacher  of  the  chorus  or  the  poet  himself.  The  actors 
are  bearded  men,  the  chorus  beardless  youths.  Two 
tripods  close  by  probably  suggest  the  prize  to  be  com- 
peted for. 

We  must  now  say  a  few  words  about  the  external 
details  of  the  performance,  the  public,  and  the  recep- 
tion of  the  pieces.  Originally,  .admission  to  theatrical 


THE  THEATRE.  445 

representations  was  free,  as  to  a  religious  festival  in 
which  the  whole  population  were  to  take  part.  But 
when  the  crowd  of  spectators  became  greater  this  had 
its  disadvantages,  and  very  often  quarrels  for  places 
ensued  between  citizens  and  strangers.  We  know 
little  of  the  conditions  in  other  places ;  but  at  Athens, 
when  in  500  B.C.  the  old  wooden  theatre  fell  down 
during  a  performance,  and  the  new  stone  theatre 
of  Dionysus  was  erected,  they  took  advantage  of 
the  occasion  to  levy  an  entrance  fee,  the  amount 
of  which  is  uncertaia  Even  at  the  beginning  of 
the  fifth  century  the  income  from  this  source 
seems  to  have  belonged  to  a  theatrical  lessee,  whose 
duty  it  was  in  consequence  to  keep  the  building  in 
proper  condition.  He  paid  a  fixed  sum  to  the  State, 
and  in  return  received  the  entrance  money.  It  is 
well  known  that  Pericles,  partly  with  a  benevolent 
desire  of  making  the  theatre  accessible  for  the  poorer 
class  of  citizens,  and  partly  also  in  order  to  increase 
his  popularity  by  this  democratic  measure,  introduced 
a  law  by  which  every  citizen  received  the  price  of 
admission  from  the  State.  This  was  the  "show- 
money"  (QewpiKov),  an  institution  which  seems  to  have 
lasted  for  centuries,  but  the  arrangements  connected 
with  it  are  by  no  means  clear.  In  the  first  place,  it 
was  probably  calculated  for  the  poor  people  only; 
but  the  rich,  too,  made  use  of  it,  if  only  to  escape 
from  possible  reproach  of  pride  or  haughtiness  by 
some  of  the  numerous  informers  who  at  that  time 
existed  at  Athens.  There  was  a  special  board  en- 
trusted with  the  distribution;  the  show-money  was 
allotted  to  the  citizens  according  to  tribes  by 
cashiers  appointed  by  lot,  whose  duty  it  was  to 
see  that  none  received  it  without  proper  claim.  It 
was  therefore  distributed  in  the  separate  tribes 


446  GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 

according  to  the  registers  of  citizens  in  the  denies. 
The  statements •  of  the  ancients  do  not  agree  about 
the  amount  of  the  money ;  but  the  most  probable  of 
the  newer  hypotheses  is  that  for  one  day  it  amounted 
to  two  obols,  for  the  three  days  of  the  great  Dionysia 
one  drachma.  The  money  was  paid,  on  admission 
into  the  theatre,  to  the  lessee,  who  either  received  it 
in  person,  or  levied  it  by  means  of  his  controllers  or 
cashiers;  the  same  people  took  the  fees  from  those 
who  had  not  received  the  show-money,  such  as  the 
resident  foreigners,  strangers,  etc.  It  is  very  diffi- 
cult to  decide  whether  this  was  paid  in  coin  or 
not ;  one  hypothesis  is  that,  instead  of  money, 
the  citizens  received  tickets,  which  had  the  value 
of  money,  and  simplified  the  paying  out  as  well 
as  the  paying  back;  many  such  counters  bearing 
theatrical  emblems,  have  come  down  to  us,  and  are 
supposed  to  have  been  admission  passes.  Still, 
weighty  objections  have  been  made  to  this  hypo- 
thesis ;  and  it  is  more  probable  that  the  citizens 
really  received  the  actual  money,  with  which  they 
could  do  what  they  pleased ;  they  either  bought  a 
ticket  for  the  theatre — and  very  likely  these  coun- 
ters were  really  entrance  tickets — or  spent  it  in 
any  other  way  they  pleased.  It  was  not  possible 
to  control  this;  and  herein,  no  doubt,  lay  the  dis- 
advantage of  the  institution,  which  has  often  been 
spoken  of  as  injurious  to  the  Attic  democracy,  since 
it  was  followed  by  similar  institutions  at  other  times, 
and  consequently  the  unproductive  expenses  of  the 
Attic  budget  extended  more  and  more.  A  number 
of  places  in  the  theatre  were  given  free,  or  were 
places  of  honour:  thus,  for  instance,  those  re- 
served by  the  State  for  foreign  envoys,  the  places 
for  the  priests  and  others  who  had  a  right  to  special 


THE   THEATRE.  447 

seats  ;  naturally,  the   expenses  of  these   places   had 
to  be  paid  by  the  State  to  the  theatrical  lessee. 

The  question  whether  women  and  children  might 
visit  the  theatre  is  often  asked.  Undoubtedly  women 
were  allowed  to  be  present  at  the  tragedies,  since  there 
are  sufficient  passages  to  prove  this.  Now,  tragedy 
was  followed  by  the  satyric  drama,  which  was  often 
exceedingly  coarse  both  in  language  and  gesture; 
obviously  then  the  women  must  have  sat  this  out, 
and  this  need  not  appear  so  very  strange  to  us,  since 
there  does  not  seem  to  have  been  much  prudery 
among  the  Greek  women.  Moreover,  the  satyric 
drama  was  only  indecent  now  and  then,  and  the 
jokes  were  vulgar  according  to  our  ideas,  but  not 
exactly  frivolous,  and  no  worse  than  modern  operettas 
to  which  ladies  are  in  the  habit  of  going.  The  come- 
dies were  different,  especially  the  older  comedies,  for 
the  whole  contents  are  often  coarse,  and  situations 
occur  in  them  which  make  it  impossible  for  us  to 
imagine  that  women  or  boys  should  have  been  present. 
Still,  all  indications  seem  to  prove  that  they  were  seen 
by  women,  with  this  limitation,  that  respectable 
women  who  had  regard  for  their  reputation  did  not 
go  to  comedies ;  hetaerae,  who  are  often  alluded  to  as 
eager  theatre-goers,  probably  constituted  the  greater 
part  of  the  feminine  public.  It  also  seems  that 
boys  were  present.  Slaves  were  allowed  to  visit  the 
theatre ;  some  even  earned  money,  and  could  there- 
fore pay  their  own  admission,  others  may  have  gone 
in  attendance  on  their  masters,  or  have  received  the 
money  for  their  entrance  in  some  other  way ;  but  it 
is  unlikely  that  they  sat  among  the  citizens ;  prob- 
ably there  were  special  places  allotted  them ;  indeed 
it  has  been  suggested  that  there  were  distinct  seats 
for  every  class.  The  only  places  about  which  this 


448  GREEK   LIFE  AT  HOME. 

is  certain  are  the  lowest  rows,  which  were  seats 
of  honour  for  officials,  priests,  etc.  Moreover,  it  is 
probable,  but  not  quite  certain,  that  the  highest 
places  were  reserved  for  strangers.  It  has  also  been 
assumed  that  the  women  sat  in  the  more  distant 
places,  or,  at  any  rate,  not  in  the  front  rows,  and  this 
seems  probable  ;  otherwise,  there  is  no  passage  which 
proves  for  certain  that  the  *  seats  for  the  men  at 
Athens  were  distinct  from  those  of  the  women. 

Another  question  is  the  manner  in  which  the  non- 
reserved  places  were  allotted.  It  seems  certain  that 
they  were  not  numbered,  and,  indeed,  this  would 
have  been  scarcely  possible  among  so  many  thou- 
sands ;  but  there  may  have  been  a  general  division  of 
the  theatre  according  to  the  wedges,  and  the  separate 
divisions  of  each  wedge,  and  these  may  have  been 
indicated  on  the  entrance  counters.  Benndorf  has 
suggested  that  at  Athens  each  wedge  may  have  been 
assigned  to  the  members  of  a  particular  tribe,  and 
that  on  the  counter  given  to  each  citizen  the  tribe  in 
question  was  marked  by  some  symbol.  But  this 
hypothesis  is  only  probable  if  we  assume,  with 
Benndorf,  that  the  citizens  received  not  money  but 
counters;  if  the  spectators  bought  their  theatre 
tickets  from  the  lessee  with  the  show-money,  or  at 
their  own  expense,  it  was  impossible  for  there  to  be 
any  division  of  places  according  to  tribes,  for  this 
would  have  necessitated  a  fresh  and  very  troublesome 
control  of  the  registers  of  citizens.  We  must  there- 
fore assume  that  the  counters  bought  of  the  theatrical 
lessee  were  marked  according  to  wedges  and  division, 
and  the  spectators  had  to  take  their  places  accordingly 
but  that,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  classes  of  spec- 
tators, there  was  no  compulsion  to  take  a  place  in  any 
special  division, 


THE  THEATRE.  449 

Of  the  three  musical  contests  celebrated  at  the 
greater  Dionysia,  each  kind,  namely,  the  tragedies 
with  the  satyric  dramas,  the  comedies,  and  the  cyclic 
choruses  had  their  special  judges.  At  the  appoint- 
ment of  the  choragi,  which  took  place  a  long  while 
before  the  festival,  the  Council  of  the  Five  Hundred, 
probably  under  the  presidency  of  the  Archon,  in 
the  presence  of  the  elected  choragi,  elected  these 
by  ballot,  and  the  lot  once  more  decided  which  of 
them  was  to  pronounce  judgment.  We  know  for 
certain  that  five  judges  were  appointed  for  comedy, 
probably  the  same  number  was  required  for  tragedy, 
although  an  exceptional  case  is  mentioned,  dur- 
ing a  contest  between  Aeschylus  and  Sophocles,  in 
which  there  were  ten  judges,  a  departure  from  the 
ordinary  custom,  which  was  required  by  the  great 
excitement  in  the  public  and  the  fear  that  the  judges 
might  be  influenced  in  their  decision  by  it.  The 
judges  had  to  pronounce  on  three  points :  the 
work  of  the  poet,  the  performance  of  chorus  and 
choragus,  and  the  acting.  The  reward  for  the 
victorious  poet  was  a  wreath  of  ivy ;  the  choragus 
received  permission  to  set  up  a  public  monument  in 
token  of  his  victory,  and,  as  already  mentioned,  the 
choragi  in  the  tragic  choruses  usually  dedicated 
tripods,  those  of  the  comic  choruses  fillets,  thyrsus 
wands,  and  other  festive  apparatus;  their  decisions 
were  also  commemorated  by  inscriptions.  The  prize 
of  the  actors  probably  consisted  in  additional  gifts 
of  money  besides  the  fees  that  were  legally  due  to 
them. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

WAR      AND      SEAFARING. 

The  Heroic  Period— Tribal  Wars— The  Chariot— Characteristics  ol 
Greek  Warriors— The  Spartans— The  Athenian  Array— Greek 
Anns— Cavaky— Greek  Sieges— Greek  Ships— The  Trireme. 

SCARCELY  any  changes  seem  to  have  taken  place  in 
the  character  of  the  offensive  and  defensive  arms  of 
the  Greeks  from  the  most  ancient  period  until  the 
Roman  time,  though  the  conduct  of  warfare  made 
enormous  advances  in  the  thousand  years  between  the 
Trojan  War  and  the  age  of  Alexander  the  Great  and 
his  successors.  Our  authorities  for  the  earliest  period 
are  but  few,  but  the  wars  of  the  fifth  and  fourth 
centuries  B.C.  have  been  carefully  described  by 
historians,  some  of  whom  themselves  possessed 
military  knowledge.  We  must  therefore  be  content 
to  obtain  our  knowledge  of  warfare  in  early  times 
from  the  descriptions  of  poets,  who  naturally  aimed 
at  a  very  different  result  from  the  historian.  The 
Homeric  Epics  are  not  authorities  which  we  can 
follow  absolutely  in  every  respect,  but  still  they 
enable  us  to  form  a  picture  of  the  warfare  of  that 
period,  and  gam  some  general  notion  of  the  mode 
in  which  it  was  conducted. 

The  military  conditions  of  that  time  bore  the  same 
patriarchal  character  which  characterised  the  govern- 
ment of  the  heroic  age.  Greece,  which  even  in  the 
historic  age  was  broken  up  into  a  number  of  separate 


WAR  AND  SEAFARING.  451 

nationalities,  was  in  the  heroic  period  merely  a 
collection  of  tribes  living  in  constant  feud  with  one 
another,  and  undertaking  continual  predatory  expedi- 
tions on  their  neighbours'  territory ;  the  nobles  placing 
themselves  at  the  head  of  a  number  of  enterprising 
men,  and  regarding  these  proceedings  as  in  no  way 
dishonourable  to  them.  Sometimes  a  great  common 
undertaking  combined  several  tribes  under  one  head, 
but  even  then  the  power  of  this  chief  was  by  no 
means  an  unlimited  one ;  the  separate  tribes  who  took 
part  in  the  expedition  under  their  own  princes  and 
nobles  stood  under  their  immediate  command,  and 
it  depended  on  the  goodwill  of  these  little  kings 
whether  they  submitted  to  the  ordinances  of  the 
chief  commander  or  not.  Consequently  there  could 
be  no  question  of  a  common  arrangement  of  the 
army,  or  of  a  subdivision  of  the  people  according  to 
the  nature  of  the  arms  they  used ;  the  battle  order 
was  drawn  up  according  to  tribes. 

Nor  were  they  acquainted  with  any  definite  plan 
of  battle.  The  main  brunt  of  the  fight  was  borne  by 
the  nobles,  who  fought  from  their  chariots,  and  whose 
single  combat  with  renowned  leaders  on  the  other  side 
excited  such  universal  interest  that  very  often  the 
battle  stopped  meantime.  Moreover,  these  duels  were 
often  decisive  for  the  victory  or  defeat  of  the  whole 
army.  The  nobles  appeared  in  full  armour,  accom- 
panied by  their  charioteers,  on  their  war  chariots, 
usually  drawn  by  two  horses.  On  the  vase  painting 
depicted  in  Fig.  166  the  painter  has  represented  four 
horses  drawing  the  chariot,  but  in  so  doing  he  was  not 
following  an  old  tradition,  since  in  his  time  the  custom 
of  fighting  with  chariots  had  .long  ceased,  but  rather 
the  universal  practice  of  ancient  vase  painting,  which 
always  represented  war  chariots  with  four  horses, 


452  GREEK  LIFE   AT  HOME. 

following  the  ex  ample  of  the  Quadrigae  used  in  races. 
The  warrior  stands  holding  the  reins  in  his  left  hand, 
and  his  spear  hi  the  right,  and  has  not  yet  mounted 
his  chariot ;  he  is  in  full  armour,  and  so  is  the  warrior 
standing  in  front  of  the  chariot,  and  consequently  we 
are  justified  in  supposing  that  this  really  represents  a 
war  chariot.  The  Greeks,  when  they  fought  from 
their  chariots,  dashed  at  full  speed  from  their  own 
ranks  against  the  foe,  and  often  challenged  an  enemy 
to  single  combat  with  words  of  bitter  mockery ;  this 
was  begun  with  lances,  and  afterwards,  when  the  com- 
batants had  got  close  together  and  possibly  left  their 
chariots,  with  the  sword ;  even  stones  were  not  despised 
in  the  heat  of  combat  Cavalry  was  unknown  in  the 
time  of  Homer ;  the  masses  of  infantry  seldom  fought 
hand  to  hand,  but  usually  from  a  distance  with  bows 
and  javelins.  But  when  they  came  to  close  quarters 
they  closed  their  ranks  and  locked  their  shields 
together;  for  the  principle  of  the  closed  phalanx, 
which  became  so  important  for  Greek  warfare,  was 
indicated  even  in  the  heroic  age.  Their  mode  of  war- 
fare shows  the  uncivilised  condition  of  the  Greeks  at 
that  time.  Cunning  and  ambush  were  regarded  as 
permissible,  and  cruelty  and  harshness  to  the  fallen 
enemy  were  universal  The  captives  taken  in  war 
became  slaves  if  they  were  not  ransomed,  and  were 
sometimes  even  mercilessly  sacrificed.  It  was  con- 
sidered a  glorious  deed  to  rob  the  fallen  enemy  of  his 
armour  in  the  midst  of  the  fight,  nor  was  it  ignoble  GO 
leave  his  corpse  unburied,  to  be  consumed  by  the  wild 
beasts.  Still,  there  were  traces  of  noble  self-sacrifice 
and  comradeship  in  their  conduct  towards  their  own 
fellow-countrymen. 

In    the    following   centuries,  after  many  revolu- 
tions and  internal  contests,  the  tribes  were  combined 


454  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

together  into  separate  states,  in  the  manner  which 
continued  with  slight  territorial  changes  down  to  the 
Macedonian  period.  But  as  the  Greeks  never  suc- 
ceeded in  becoming  one  great  united  power,  or  even  a 
federation  of  states,  they  never  attained  to  a  common 
army,  and  the  armies,  of  Greece  were  as  manifold  and 
various  as  the  circumstances  in  the  various  small 
states  of  Hellas.  Details  have  come  down  to  us  con- 
cerning very  few ;  we  know  most  of  Sparta  and  Athens. 
Sparta  in  particular  was  warlike  in  the  whole 
character  of  its  inhabitants,  and  consequently  the 
whole  constitution  was  based  on  military  principles. 
Every  "Spartiate,"  that  is,  every  man  descended 
from  an  ancient  Spartan  family,  was  bound  to  mili- 
tary service  in  his  country  from  his  twentieth  to  his 
sixtieth  year.  Of  course,  they  did  not  call  upon  all 
capable  of  bearing  arms  in  time  of  Avar,  but  in' each 
case  the  Ephors  decided  which  classes  were  to  be 
levied.  Each  of  the  five  communities  of  Sparta  sup- 
plied one  division  (Xo^o<?) ;  these  were  again  subdivided 
in  companies  (fMopcu),  who  messed  in  common.  In 
later  times,  towards  the  end  of  the  fifth  century,  the 
divisions  were  changed.  The  whole  Lacedaemonian 
army  was  then  divided  into  six  divisions,  each  of  these 
into  two  companies ;  the  size  of  these  divisions  varied 
according  to  requirement.  The  non-citizens  too  were 
called  to  military  service ;  the  "  Perioiki "  formed 
separate  divisions,  who  as  a  rule  did  not  fight  in  the 
same  ranks  with  the  Spartiates,  but  still  served  like 
these,  as  heavy-armed  infantry  (oTrXrrai),  while  the 
"  Helots,"  who  were  actual  slaves,  followed  their 
masters  to  battle  as  attendants,  chiefly  as  shield- 
bearers,  and  were  sometimes  used  in  battle  as  light- 
armed  troops.  The  command  in  time  of  war  fell 
to  one  of  the  two  kings,  and  it  was  the  citizens  who 


WAR  AND  SEAFARING.  455 

decided  which  of  the  two  should  take  the  chief  com- 
mand on  a  particular  occasion.  Each  separate  division 
of  troops  had  its  own  leader,  who  was  probably 
entrusted  in  time  of  peace  also  with  the  military  train- 
ing and  exercise  of  his  men.  In  military  matters  the 
Spartans  far  excelled  most  of  the  other  Greeks,  because 
their  whole  training  and  education  rested  on  a  military 
basis,  and  no  glory  was  regarded  as  greater  than  that 
achieved  in  war.  Moreover  no  Spartiate  might  work 
at  any  profession  or  trade,  but  was  obliged  to  dedicate 
all  his  powers  to  the  Slate,  and  therefore  the  Spartans 
were  professional  soldiers  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word. 
It  is  true  they  were  only  strong  in  infantry ;  the 
cavalry  was  insignificant  both  in  quality  and  quantity. 
Each  division  had  some  cavalry,  but  for  this  purpose 
they  took  the  weaker  men,  who  were  incapable  of 
serving  as  heavy-armed  infantry,  and,  in  consequence, 
the  cavalry  played  a  very  unimportant  part  in  the 
Spartan  army,  and  they  were  often  obliged  to  engage 
foreign  mercenaries  for  the  purpose. 

The  warlike  Spartans  regarded  a  military  expedi- 
tion as  a  desirable  opportunity  of  putting  to  the  test 
their  powers  acquired  in  time  of  peace,  and  it  was 
really  a  kind  of  festival  to  them.  They  set  out  for  a 
campaign  after  sacrificing  and  taking  auspices.  In 
the  enemy's  country  they  set  up  a  camp,  and  this 
was  not  square  as  was  the  usual  Greek  custom,  but 
round  and  unfortified;  it  was  guarded  by  the  out- 
posts and  the  cavalry,  who  were  sent  out  to  patrol. 
The  helots  were  encamped  outside.  Military  drill 
was  carried  on  very  energetically  within,  but  still,  on 
the  whole,  the  life  and  discipline  in  the  field  were 
less  severe  than  at  home;  and  on  these  occasions 
purple  garments  were  worn,  and  the  liair  was  care- 
fully curled  and  decked  with  wreaths,  a  thing  which 


456  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

was  never  done  at  home  in  time  of  peace.  Before  a 
battle  they  offered  sacrifices  in  the  early  hours  of  the 
morning ;  then  they  set  out  against  the  enemy,  "with 
closed  ranks  and  regular  step,  to  the  joyous  sound  of 
flutes  and  the  marching  song,  in  which  the  whole 
army  joined.  The  heroic  courage  and  self-denying 
endurance  with  which  tjie  Lacedaemonians  fought, 
even  without  hope  of  victory,  are  everywhere  re- 
nowned, and  the  noble  friendships  between  older 
and  younger  men  on  these  occasions  stood  out  in 
the  brightest  light. 

At  Athens  too  the  citizens  were  bound  to  military 
service  till  their  sixtieth  year,  but  this  obligation  was 
not  so  general  as  at  Sparta.  According  to  the  consti- 
tution of  Solon,  it  was  only  the  citizens  of  the  three 
highest  classes  who  were  bound  to  military  service ; 
the  "  Thetes,"  who  formed  the  fourth  class,  were 
exempt,  and  only  in  exceptional  cases,  such  as 
occurred  hi  later  times,  during  long  and  serious  wars, 
they  were  levied  as  light-armed  troops,  or  more  often 
as  sailors  for  the  fleet.  After  the  Revolution  of  Clei- 
sthenes,  when  Attica  was  divided  into  ten  tribes,  this 
political  division  was  also  maintained  for  the  levy ; 
the  register  of  citizens  was  made  the  basis  of  a  roll 
of  the  men  in  each  tribe  and  deme  who  were  liable 
to  military  service,  and  on  each  separate  occasion  the 
decree  of  the  people  decided  what  ages  were  to  be 
levied.  It  was  the  rule,  however,  that  the  first  two 
ages,  from  the  eighteenth  to  the  twentieth  year,  i.e.,  the 
ephebi,  should  not  be  called  for  service  in  the  field, 
but  only  in  the  country  as  riding  patrol,  and  it  was 
not  till  their  twentieth  year  that  citizens  were  re- 
quired to  serve  outside  the  country.  The  members  of 
the  council,  as  well  as  the  higher  officials,  were 
exempt  from  military  service  during  their  period  of 


WAR  AND   SEAFARING.  457 

office.  The  Athenian  army  was  divided  into  ten 
divisions  (ra£ef<»)  according  to  the  number  of  tribes-, 
these,  again,  were  divided  into  companies  and  further 
subdivisions,  whose  strength  varied  according  to  the 
size  of  the  levy  and  the  conditions  of  the  country. 
The  resident  foreigners,  who  were  also  bound  to 
military  service,  served  in  the  fleet,  and  also  in  the 
land  army  among  the  infantry,  but  never  in  the 
cavalry ;  they  were  chiefly  used  to  garrison  fortified 
places  and  defend  cities.  The  cavalry  were  far  more 
important  at  Athens  than  at  Sparta.  Every  tribe 
supplied  a  hundred  horsemen,  and  altogether  these 
formed  two  divisions  of  five  hundred  men,  com- 
manded by  the  Hipparchs.  As  the  State  did  not 
provide  the  horses,  but  expected  the  soldiers  to  pro- 
cure and  feed  their  own,  this  service  was  a  very  ex- 
pensive one,  and  consequently  was  only  undertaken 
by  the  first  two  classes.  These  cavalry  regiments, 
which  were  the  pride  of  the  Athenian  citizens,  were 
exercised  in  time  of  peace  also,  and  from  time  to 
time  inspected  by  the  Council  of  Five  Hundred ,  we 
have  already  mentioned  that  the  cavalry  played  an 
important  part  at  the  Panathenaic  procession.  In 
ancient  times  the  army  was  commanded  in  time  of 
war  by  the  king,  and  afterwards  by  the  archon  as 
long  as  there  was  only  one ;  when  there  were  nine 
archons  this  duty  fell  to  one  of  them,  caUed  the 
Polemarch.  After  the  reforms  of  Cleisthenes,  it 
became  customary  for  each  tribe  to  elect  a  general 
(arparrjjo^),  and  for  the  chief  command  in  time  of 
war  to  fall  to  all  these  generals  in  turn,  each  com- 
manding for  a  day.  Next  came  the  "  Taxiarchs,"  and 
the  two  "  Hipparchs,"  and  ten  "Phylarchs/'but  nearly 
all  these  offices  lost  their  importance,  as  did  also 
the  military  organisation  of  the  citizens,  when  the 
p* 


458 


GREEK   LIFE  AT  HOME. 


mercenary  system  was  introduced.  This  began  as  early 
as  the  time  of  the  Peloponnesian  war,,  and  gradually 
gained  ground.  Originally  they  hired  troops  from 
foreign  nations  of  a  kind  which  were  wanting  in  their 
own  army  ;  thus,  javelin  throwers  were  brought  from 
Rhodes,  and  archers  from  Crete,  but  in  the  course  of  the 
fourth  century  the  actual  Hellenic  population,  and  in 
particular  that  of  Attica,  became  more  and  more 


FIG.  167. 


unwarlike,  and  as  the  princes  of  Macedonia  and  other 
non-Hellenic  states  began  to  form  standing  armies  of 
well-disciplined  mercenary  troops,  the  Hellenic  re- 
publics were  forced  to  follow  this  example  as  their 
own  military  power  diminished.  This  mercenary 
system  did  a  great  deal  to  undermine  the  independ- 
ence of  Greece,  and  facilitate  its  subjection  under  the 
Macedonian  dominion.  Even  in  the  time  of  the 
Peloponnesian  war,  the  Arcadians  were  willing  to  fight 
for  anyone  who  would  pay  them,  against  their  own 
countrymen ;  hi  the  expedition  of  the  Ten  Thousand, 
they  formed  an  important  part  of  the  troops  of 


WAR   AND   SEAFARING. 


459 


the  younger  Cyrus,  and  by  no  means  the  worst  part. 
As  the  population  was  impoverished  by  many  wars, 
they  became  more  willing  to  respond  to  the  invi- 
tation of  any  capable  Condottiere,  and  collected  from 
all  states,  but  chiefly  from  Peloponnesus ;  and  it 
sometimes  happened  that  the  members  of  a  single 
state  or  tribe  united  together  as  a  special  division  of 
the  army.  As  the  warlike  spirit  disappeared  among 


FIG. 


the  citizens,  who  were  unwilling  to  undergo  the 
fatigues  of  service,  these  standing  mercenary  troops, 
under  the  command  of  excellent  generals,  became 
more  and  more  disciplined  and  capable.  The  pay  for 
a  common  soldier  was  usually  four  obols  a  day  (about 
fivepence),  half  of  which  was  pay  and  the  other  half 
ration-money ;  this  amount  was  sometimes  increased. 
The  captain  of  a  company  received  twice  as  much,  the 
general  four  times,  but  the  prospect  of  booty  was  even 
more  attractive  than  the  money ;  for  according  to  the 
conditions  of  warfare  of  that  time,  every  campaign  was  a 
predatory  and  ravaging  expedition,  and  the  mercenary 


460 


GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 


troops  who  went  to  war  from  purely  personal  motives 
spared  neither  friend  nor  foe,  and  herein  simply 
followed  the  example  of  their  leaders. 

We  must  now  say  a  few  words  about  Greek  arms, 


FIG.  169. 


in  which,  as  already  mentioned,  very  few  changes  took 
place.  The  full  armour  of  a  Homeric  hero  consisted 
of  greaves,  cuirass,  helmet,  shield,  sword,  and  one  or 
two  spears,  and  in  all  essentials  this  was  also  the 
armour  of  the  heavy-armed  soldiers  of  the  historic 


WAR  AND  SEAFARING.  461 

period ;  there  were,  however,  a  few  modifications  in 
the  centuries  which  followed  Homer.  The  defensive 
armour  of  the  infantry  consisted  in  helmet,  cuirass, 
greaves,  and  shield.  As  a  rule,  they  began  by  putting 


the  greaves  on  first,  as  it  would  have  been  difficult  to 
bend  the  body  after  putting  on  the  cuirass,  and  we 
see  this  rule  observed  in  most  old  works  of  art,  though 
there  are  some  exceptions.  The  greaves  were  half- 
bent  plates  of  brass,  lined  within  with  leather  or  wool ; 


462  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

they  had  to  be  elastic,  because  they  were  bent  out- 
wards hi  putting  on,  and  by  means  of  their  elasticity 
they  clung  to  the  leg,  the  front  of  which  they  covered, 
extending  above  the  knee;  still,  there  must  have  been  a 
ring  round  the  ankle  to  hold  them  fast,  and  perhaps 
there  was  another  fastening  above.  In  Fig.  1 6  7,  which, 
with  Fig.  168,  represents  pictures  from  a  painted  bowl 
with  red  figures,  we  see  on  the  right  a  young  warrior 
stooping  down  to  put  on  one  of  his  greaves,  which  he 
is  bending  outwards  for  this  purpose ;  contrary  to  the 
usual  custom,  the  youth  has  already  put  on  the  cuirass 
and  chlamys  over  his  chiton.  In  Fig.  169  the  inner 
picture  of  a  drinking  cup,  representing  the  murder  of 
Dolon,  the  Greek  hero  Diomede  wears  greaves,  on 
which  we  can  clearly  recognise  the  ring  below. 

The  cuirass  of  the  heroic  and  historic  periods  is 
shorter  than  that  which  was  customary  with  the 
Romans,  but  still  descends  far  enough  to  cover  the 
greater  part  of  the  body  below,  and  may  be  seen  on 
works  of  art ;  but,  as  a  rule,  the  massive  parts  do  not 
extend  below  the  waist,  and  there  are  movable  lappets 
attached  to  it  to  protect  the  parts  below.  The  cuirass 
was  generally  made  of  bronze,  and  consisted  of  two 
plates,  one  of  which  covered  the  breast,  the  other  the 
back,  and  these  were  fastened  together  at  the  lower 
edges,  and  also  below  and  above  the  shoulders  by 
buckles  or  other  fastenings.  In  later  times,  shoulder- 
pieces  were  added,  which  are  not  mentioned  in  Homer ; 
these  were  fastened  to  the  back,  and  when  the  cuirass 
was  put  on-drawn  from  there  over  the  shoulder,  and 
made  firm  in  front  with  little  chains  or  cords  to  rings 
or  hooks.  In  Fig.  168,  the  man  on  the  right,  who  is 
putting  on  his  armour,  has  already  drawn  on  his 
cuirass;  the  two  shoulder-pieces  are  still  open,  and  he 
is  just  on  the  point  of  pulling  the  right  shoulder-piece 


GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 


464 

forward,  in  order  to  fasten  it  there  to  the  front  piece 
of  his  cuirass.    In  Fig.  170,  a  heroic  genre  picture,  we 


FIG.  172. 


see  this  more  clearly.'  Here  Achilles  bandages  the 
arm  of  the  wounded  Patroclus;  the  right  shoulder- 
piece  of  Patroclus  is  fastened,  but  the  left  is  opened 
in  order  not  to  hurt  the  wounded  arm.  The  mode 


WAR    AND   SEAFARING.  465 

in  which  the  shoulder-pieces  were  fastened  to  the 
cuirass  is  very  clearly  represented  in  the  figure  of 
Amphiaraus,  in  Fig.  171,  a  vase  painting  represent- 
ing the  "  Farewell  of  Amphiaraus."  There  were  two 
kinds  of  cuirass :  those  with  stiff  plates,  and  those 
with  scales.  In  the  former,  those  plates  are  com- 
monest which  do  not  fit  closely  to  the  body,  but  only 
roughly  represent  its  shape;  of  this  kind  are  the 
cuirasses  of  the  warriors  in  Figs.  167  and  168,  and  also 
that  of  Amphiaraus  in  Fig.  171.  In  Fig.  172,  taken 
from  a  bowl  painted  by  Duris,  the  youth  who  is  going 
to  battle  receives  a  cuirass  of  this  kind  (compare  also 
Fig.  166).  Sometimes  this  cuirass  was  made  in  a 
shape  common  among  the  Romans,  imitating  the  form 
of  the  human  body  and  representing  its  chief  features. 
The  warriors  in  Fig.  170  wear  scale  armour;  the 
cuirasses  are  evidently  made  of  leather,  covered  with 
little  brass  plates,  arranged  one  over  another  like  scales. 
Some  parts  of  the  cuirasses  seem  also  to  be  made  of 
plates ;  for  instance,  the  girdle  of  Achilles  and  a  strip 
behind,  also  the  upper  part  of  the  breast-plate  of 
Patroclus ;  the  shoulder-pieces,  however,  are  made  of 
scales,  for  flexibility  was  of  special  importance  here. 
The  belly  was  protected  by  leather  strips  or  lappets, 
covered  with  metal,  hanging  down  at  the  lower  edge 
of  the  cuirass,  and  covering  part  of  the  thighs  (com- 
pare Figs.  169  and  170).  The  cuirass  was  gener- 
ally fastened  round  the  hips  by  a  leathern  belt,  with 
brass  coverings ;  perhaps  this  is  the  object  which  the 
boy  in  Fig.  168  is  offering  to  the  warrior  putting  on 
nis  armour. 

Below  the  cuirass  they  wore  a  short  chiton  woven 
of  especially  strong  threads,  and  frequently  mentioned 
by  Homer  as  twisted  or  woven;  the  sleeves  were 
usually  cut  short,  falling  a  little  way  below  the 


466  GREEK  LIFE   AT  HOME. 

shoulders,  and  it  only  descended  over  part  of  the 
thighs.  (Compare  the  pictures.)  Homer  also  makes 
mention  of  a  broad  girdle  (jj,irpa),  plated  with  brass, 
worn  immediately  over  the  chiton  in  such  a  manner 


FIG.  173. 


FIG.  174. 


that  the  upper  part  of  the.girdle  was  covered  by  the 
cuirass,  while  the  lower  was  exposed.  This  girdle 
seems  to  have  fallen  into  disuse  soon  after  the 
Homeric  age,  for  we  can  find  no  trace  of  it  on  any 
works  of  art.  The  linen  tunics  mentioned  in  Homer, 
which  became  commoner  in  later  times,  were  probably 
woven  of  strong  thread,  and  covered  with  brass  at  the 
most  exposed  places. 

The  helmet,  which,  even  in  the  earliest  ages,  took 


WAR   AND  SEAFARING. 


467 


the  place  of  the  original  head- covering  of  skin, 
was  usually  of  bronze,  and,  according  to  the  state- 
ments of  Homer  and  originals  still  existing,  was 
of  three  thicknesses,  strongest  in  the  middle,  with  a 
thinner  layer  above  and  below.  The  chief  part  ot 
the  helmet  fitted  close  to  the  head  like  a  cap,  and 
covered  forehead  and  temples  ;  in  front  it  hung  down 
hi  two  separate  pieces  over  the  cheeks ;  there  were 
two  openings  for  the  eyes  between  the  nose-piece  and 


FIG.  176. 


cheek-pieces.  In  ancient  times  the  skull  cap  and 
cheek-pieces  were  made  of  a  single  piece,  as  we  see  on 
the  ancient  Greek  helmets  from  Olympia  and  Sar- 
dinia, represented  in  Figs.  173  to  175 ;  these  are  also 
provided  with  nose-pieces,  so  that  not  much  could  be 
recognised  of  the  warrior  who  was  covered  in  this 
way.  The  helmet  acquired  an  additional  protection 
by  a  ridge  extending  over  the  middle  of  the  skull  cap 
from  the  back  of  the  head  to  the  forehead,  in  which 
the  crest  was  fastened ;  there  were  also  helmets  with 
two  ridges  to  increase  the  resisting  power,  and  this 


468  GREEK   LIFE   AT    HOME. 

then  had  two  crests.  Very  often  the  crest,  which  was 
of  great  size,  was  not  fastened  directly  into  the  ridge, 
but  connected  with  it  by  means  of  a  tall,  narrow 
elevation,  so  that  it  towered  high  above  the  helmet. 
The  vase  painting  represented  in  Fig.  176  shows 
helmets  of  this  kind  belonging  to  two  warriors  who 
are  playing  draughts ;  one  of  them  has  taken  off  his 
helmet  and  placed  it  on  the  shield  beside  him  ;  tho 
other  keeps  his  on,  but  has  raised  the  part  over  the 
forehead ;  the  shape  resembles  the  originals  repre- 
sented in  Figs.  173  to  175.  Sometimes  the  crest  was 
fastened  straight  into  the  skull  cap  without  any  ridge, 
as  on  Fig.  166,  in  the  helmet  belonging  to  the  warrior 
on  the  right.  In  later  times,  many  changes  took 
place  in  the  shape  of  helmets ;  the  nose-piece  and 
cheek-pieces  were  sometimes  flexible  and  sometimes 
stiff,  but  of  a  different  shape ;  thus  the  helmet  of 
Achilles,  in  Fig.  170,  has  the  stiff  forehead  and  nose- 
piece,  but  the  cheek -pieces  move  on  a  hinge,  and  for 
the  sake  of  comfort  the  hero  has  tuned  them  up- 
wards. Of  the  three  helmets  in  Fig.  167,  the  one  on 
the  ground  on  the  right  seems  also  to  have  movable 
cheek-pieces,  but  there  is  no  nose-piece,  and  only  a 
protection  for  the  forehead,  which  could  probably  also 
be  pushed  back  ;  the  two  others  have  stiff  nose-  and 
cheek-pieces  in  one  with  the  skull  cap,  but  the  cheek- 
pieces  are  not  pointed,  as  was  usually  the  case  in  the 
older  kind,  but  rounded  off.  (Compare  also  Figs.  166, 
169,  and  172.)  There  was  usually  also  a  protectirg 
piece  for  the  neck,  as  may  be  seen  on  many  other 
pictures.  Works  of  art  show  manifold  ways  of 
decorating  the  helmets.  (Compare  the  helmet  of 
Diomede  in  Fig.  169.)  Sometimes  they  made  them 
in  the  shape  of  a  human  face,  imitating  the  lines  of 
the  forehead,  eyebrows,  etc.,  in  bronze.  Curiously 


WAR  AND  SEAFARING.  469 

enough,  this  mask  form  was  sometimes  transferred 
even  to  the  back  of  the  helmet,  as  may  be  seen 
in  Fig.  177,  representing  the  death*  of  Memnon, 
where  the  long  hair  of  the  warrior  descends  below 
the  helmet,  though  this  may  have  been  due  to  a 
mistake  on  the  part  of  the  artist ;  another  point  of 
interest  about  this  helmet  is  its  two  crests.  Besides 


these  high  and  usually  splendid  helmets,  the  simple 
cap-shaped  helmets  were  also  extant  in  later  times, 
and  these  were  strengthened  by  ridges  or  plates  of 
brass  nailed  on  them;  such  is  the  helmet  worn  by 
Amphiaraus  in  Fig.  171.  To  prevent  excessive  pressure 
on  the  head,  they  usually  wore  a  close-fitting  cap 
below  it,  as  we  see  in  the  case  of  Patroclus,  in 
Fig.  170. 

In  the  Homeric  age,  there  were  two  chief  kinds  of 
shields :  a  small  circular  one,  and  an  oval  shield  of 


470  GREEK  LIFE  AT  HOME. 

almost  human  height.  They  were  made  of  several 
layers  of  bull's  hide,  sewn  on  the  top  of  one  another, 
and  covered,  as  a  rule,  on  the  outer  side,  with  bronze. 
As  the  diameter  of  the  skins  decreased  from  without 
to  within,  and  the  strength  of  the  metal  coverings  de- 
creased from  the  middle  to  the  edge,  the  result  was 
that  the  middle  of  the  shield,  which  had  to  offer  the 
greatest  resistance,  was  also  the  strongest  part ;  besides 
this,  a  boss  or  convex  bronze  plate  (op^aXos),  was  also 
fixed  iri"  the  centre  of  the  outer  side,  but  in  later  times 
they  put  the  coat  of  arms  in  its  place.  The  smaller 
circular  shield  seems  to  have  been  carried  by  a  double 
handle,  through  one  part  of  which,  in  the  middle  of 
the  hollow,  the  arm  was  thrust,  while  the  other  at  the 
edge  was  clasped  by  the  hand  (compare  Fig.  169). 
This  mode  of  carrying  would  be  impossible  for  the 
large  shields,  and  these  must  have  been  managed  by 
a  single  handle,  though  we  must  not  forget  that  these 
very  heavy  shields  were  also  suspended  from  the  body 
by  straps.  In  later  times,  too,  we  find  the  round  and 
oval  shields  still  in  use,  but  the  latter  were  considerably 
diminished  hi  size,  which  is  very  natural,  since  it  must 
have  been  extremely  inconvenient  and  troublesome 
in  battle  to  carry  these  enormous  shields.  Both  kinds 
were  moderately  vaulted,  and  had  a  somewhat  project- 
ing edge ;  the  shields,  both  round  and  oval,  often  had 
two  slits  at  the  sides,  the  object  of  which  was  to  enable 
the  warrior  to  peep  at  the  enemy  from  behind  his 
shield,  and  also  perhaps  to  send  his  spear  through  the 
opening  ;  these  slits  may  be  recognised  in  the  shields 
in  Fig.  176.  As  to  the  mode  in  which  they  were 
carried,  we  sometimes  find  two  handles,  both  at  a  little 
distance  from  the  centre,  as  on  the  shield  in  Fig.  171, 
of  which  the  inner  side  is  visible ;  sometimes  a  cross- 
bar extended  over  the  whole  inner  breadth  of  the 


WAR  AND   SEAFARING. 


471 


shield,  through  which  the  arm  was  thrust,  while  there 
were  various  straps  at  the  edge  which  could  be  easily 
grasped,  and  which  made  it  possible  to  go  on  using  the 
shield  even  if  one  of  these  handles  should  have  been 
torn  off.  There  is  a  rather  different  contrivance  in  a 
shield  in  Fig.  167,  of  which  we  see  the  inner  side; 
instead  of  one  crossbar  used  as  a  diameter  of  the 
circle,  there  are  three  like  radii  meeting  together  in 


FIG.  178. 


Fio.  179. 


FIG.  180. 

the  centre.  Here,  too,  there  were  probably  loops  at 
the  edge.  Very  often  the  shields  were  lined  inside 
with  coloured  materials,  and  decorated  with  tassels  or 
cords;  on  small  round  shields  we  sometimes  find  a 
broad  lappet  of  leather,  or  some  such  material,  hang- 
ing down,  to  give  the  combatant  a  further  protection 
for  the  lower  part  of  his  body.  The  coats  of  arms, 
which  were  very  various  and  full  of  meaning,  were 
either  put  on  in  relief  like  the  head  of  a  satyr  in  the 
centre  of  a  shield  in  Fig.  176,  or  else  inlaid  of  metal 
of  another  colour,  or  nailed  on. 


472  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

Offensive  arms  may  be  divided  into  those  which 
were  used  in  close  combat,  especially  lance  and  sword, 
and  those  which  were  used  from  a  distance,  in  par- 
ticular, javelin,  bow,  and  sling.  The  spear,  or  lance,  con- 
sisted in  a  shaft  usually  made  of  ash,  provided 
at  both  ends  with  a  bronze  point ;  one  of  these 
points  was  used  for  attack,  the  other  (compare 
Fig.  166)  to  fix  the  spear  in  the  ground  when  it 
was  not  required.  The  material  for  the  point, 
in  the  heroic  age,  was  usually  bronze :  in  later 
times,  iron.  The  blade  of  the  point  required 
for  attack  was  usually  leaf-shaped  and  two- 
edged  (compare  Figs.  178  to  181,  taken  from 
originals  in  Dodona) ;  its  length  was  from  7  to  8 
inches,  its  breadth  about  2£  in  the  middle ;  it 
was  fastened  to  the  upper  pointed  end  of  the 
shaft  by  a  socket,  and  this  socket  was  sur- 
rounded by  a  ring  in  order  to  increase  the  firm- 
ness. The  lower  end  was  usually  only  a  short 
conical  point.  The  length  of  the  spear  was 
greater  in  the  heroic  age  than  afterwards. 
Homer  mentions  spears  about  five  yards  long, 
and  in  naval  warfare  even  one  about  ten 
yards  long,  but  this  was  constructed  of  several 
pieces  fastened  together,  and  was  probably 
only  used  in  naval  warfare  to  keep  off  the  grap- 
pling irons ;  hi  later  times  the  usual  length  was 
from  two  to  two  and  a  quarter  yards.  That 
181.  is  about  the  length  of  the  spears  represented 
in  Figs.  167,  168,  and  171.  We  often  find, 
as  in  Fig.  176,  two  spears  hi  the  hand  of  a 
warrior ;  this  usually  happened  when  the  soldier  used 
his  long  spear  not  only  for  thrusting,  but  also  foi 
throwing,  in  which  case  he  would  require  a  re- 
serve spear.  In  thrusting,  as  well  as  in  throwing,  he 


WAR   AND   SEAFARING. 


473 

clasped  the  spear  in  the  middle  with  the  right  hand 
alone. 

The  sword  is  an  even 
more  useful  weapon  for 
hand  •  to  -  hand  combat 
than  the  speor,  which  on 
account  of  its  length  can 
anly  be  used  from  some 
distance.  Originally 
swords  were  constructed 
of  bronze,  and  this  is 
the  only  kind  mentioned 
by  Homer,  afterwards  of 
iron;  the  blade  was  two- 
edged,  and  in  the  heroic 
age  tolerably  long,  prob- 
ably shaped  like  that  in 
Fig.  182,  which  was 
brought  from  Mycenae 
and  is  twenty-fourinches 
long;  the  two  -  edged 
blade  and  the  top  of  the 
handle,  which  was  de- 
corated by  plates  of 
wood,  bone,  or  such  like, 
fastened  on  by  nails,  but 
which  has  not  been  pre- 
served, were  formed  of  a 
single  piece.  As  this 
sword  and  the  others  re- 
sembling it  were  equally 
well  calculated  for  thrust-  Fl°-  182-  Fl°-  183-  Fl°-  184- 
ing  and  piercing,  Hel- 

big's  theory  that    they   most  closely  resemble   the 
Homeric  swords,  is  a  very  probable  one.    The  swords 


474 


GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 


in  Figs.  183  and  184,  also  from  Mycenae,  are  of  a  dif- 
ferent kind ;  the  blades  are  two-edged,  and  measure 

thirty-two  inches 
in  length  ;  the  top 
of  the  hilt  is 
formed  of  the  same 
piece  with  the 
blade,  and  covered 
with  plates  of  a 
different  material, 
but  this  weapon 
seems  to  have  been 
exclusively  used  for 
piercing.  Ofanother 
kind  are  those  in 
Figs.  185  and  186, 
but  these  date  from 
Italian  lake  dwell- 
ings, though  the 
same  kind  is  said 
to  have  been  also 
found  in  Greece. 
The  two  -  edged 
blade  is  short  here, 
very  broad  at  the 
top,  but  growing 
gradually  narrower, 
so  that  the  shape 
almost  resembles 
an  acute  -  angled 

triangle.  The  handle,  the  lower  end  of  which  is 
bent  outwards  in  the  shape  of  a  semicircle,  is 
worked  out  of  a  separate  piece  of  bronze,  and 
connected  with  the  blade  by  nails.  In  the  historic 
age  the  swords  are  usually  short,  the  blade  about 


FIG.  185. 


FIG.  186. 


WAR  AND  SEAFABmo.  475 

twenty  inches  long,  reed-shaped,  and  two-edged, 
adapted  for  thrusting  and  piercing  ;  the  handle,  which 
is  generally  suited  for  parrying  strokes,  is  rather 
small  (compare  the  sword  in  Fig.  169,  where  the 
sheath  and  shoulder-belt  are  well  represented).  The 
sheath  was  often  of  some  costly  material,  and 
artistically  decorated,  ordinary  kinds  were  made  of 
leather ;  the  shoulder-belt  was  usually  a  leather  strap, 
with  metal  plates ;  it  was  suspended  over  the  right 
shoulder,  and  was  so  long  that  the  sword  hung  down 
by  the  left  side,  but  in  later  times  they  sometimes 
wore  the  sword  on  the  right  side.  Besides  the  kinds 
of  swords  already  mentioned  there  were  some  others ; 
in  particular  that  which  is  specially  designated  as  the 
Lacedaemonian  sword,  the  blade  of  which  is  slightly 
curved  on  one  side  from  the  handle  onwards,  and  very 
sharp,  while  the  other  edge  is  straight  and  evidently 
blunt ;  this  kind  of  sword  could  of  course  only  be 
used  for  thrusting.  Towards  the  end  of  the  Hellenic 
period,  Iphicrates  again  introduced  long  swords  in 
the  Greek  armies ;  they  measured  as  much  as  a  yard 
with  the  hilt,  but  the  heavy-armed  infantry  prob- 
ably continued  to  use  the  short  sword. 

There  were  two  other  weapons  for  close  encounter, 
the  club  and  the  battle-axe,  but  they  are  not  im- 
portant for  Greek  warfare.  The  former  was  chiefly 
used  in  the  mythical  contests  of  pre-historic  times,  the 
latter,  represented  on  works  of  art  as  the  usual  weapon 
of  the  Amazons,  is  sometimes  mentioned  in  Homer  as 
used  by  Greek  heroes,  but  it  was  afterwards  only  in 
use  as  an  actual  military  weapon  among  some  Oriental 
nations. 

Throwing  weapons  were  chiefly  used  by  light- 
armed  troops.  In  the  heroic  ages  the  javelin  was 
only  a  hunting  weapon ;  the  heroes  usually  used  their 


476  GREEK   LIFE  AT   HOME. 

ordinary  long  lances  for  throwing.  The  light  javelin, 
about  two  and  three-quarter  yards  in  length,  became 
a  very  common  weapon  of  attack  in  the  next  period, 
when  the  light-armed  troops  formed  a  regular  part  of 
the  army ;  this  closely  resembled  the  javelin  used  in 
the  gymnastic  contests,  especially  in  the  Pentathlon, 
and  like  this  was  provided  with  a  loop,  which  the 
thrower  wound  round  his  fingers.  We  have  already 
discussed  the  method  of  throwing  this  spear. 

Next  we  have  to  consider  bow  and  arrows.  There 
were  two  kinds  of  boAvs :  in  the  first  place,  a  simple 
one  formed  of  a  single  piece  of  elastic  wood  bent 
outwards  at  the  ends  ;  its  form  is  slightly  bent,  and 
only  attains  the  shape  of  a  strong  curve  when  it 
is  drawn.  This  bow  was  called  the  "  Scythian," 
or  "  Parthian,"  but  we  find  it  also  on  Greek  works 
of  art,  and  it  was  probably  the  older  kind.  The 
other  shape  is  that  of  the  double  bow,  in  which 
two  curved  pieces  of  horn  are  connected  together 
by  a  cylindrical  piece  of  metal ;  this  shape  was  the 
commoner  in  the  Greek  army,  and  even  when  they 
gave  up  using  goat  and  gazelle  horns  for  the  bow, 
but  constructed  it  of  wood,  it  retained  the  shape. 
The  metal  plate  in  the  middle  was  also  used  as  a  rest 
for  the  arrow,  and  the  ends  of  the  bow  to  which  the 
string  was  fastened,  were  usually  plated  with  metal 
The  cord  was  made  of  plaited  guts,  and  as  a  rule, 
when  the  bow  was  not  in  use,  was  fastened  only 
to  one  end,  arid  hung  down  loose,  in  order  that  the 
bow  might  not  lose  its  elasticity  through  the  constant 
strain  of  the  string.  The  arrow  was  a  shaft  aboiu 
twenty-four  inches  long,  usually  of  light  reed,  on 
which  the  point,  supplied  with  two  or  more  barbs,  was 
fastened  with  a  string ;  at  the  other  end,  it  usually 
had  a  little  weight,  supplied  with  a  notch  for  setting 


WAR  AND  SEAFARING.  477 

it  more  firmly  against  the  string.  We  have  evidence 
in  Greek  excavations  of  the  three-edged  arrow  men- 
tioned by  Homer;  compare  Fig.  187,  an  arrow-head 
from  Megalopolis.  The  arrows  were  kept  in  a  quiver 
made  of  leather  or  basket-work,  of  which  two  kinds 
are  found:  one  wide  kind  of  triangular  form,  worn 
on  the  left  side,  and  generally  used  with  the  so-called 
Scythian  bow ;  and  a  smaller  cylindrical  shape,  which 
hung  down  on  the  back  over  the  left  shoulder,  and 
belonged  to  the  Greek  bow.  The  sling  consisted  in  a 
cord  or  strap,  broad  in  the  middle, 
and  narrower  at  the  two  ends,  by 
means  of  which  little  plummets 
were  thrown  ;  these  were  placed 
on  the  broad  centre  of  the  strap 
the  two  ends  of  which  were  pressed 
together  in  the  hand  and  swung 
a  few  times  round  the  head  ;  with 
a  careful  aim  they  then  let  go  one 
end  of  the  strap,  whereupon  the 
shot  flew  in  the  direction  which  it 
had  received  by  the  impulse  of  swinging.  In  the 
heroic  age  the  sling-shots  were  always  stone  balls ; 
afterwards  they  also  used  plummets  of  clay  or  lead, 
very  often  in  the  shape  of  an  acorn.  The  most  im- 
portant part  of  the  Greek  army  in  the  heroic  age, 
both  in  the  period  of  citizen  armies  and  in  that  of 
mercenary  troops,  were  the  heavy-armed  soldiers 
(oTrXirat).  The  weight  which  they  had  to  carry,  in- 
cluding offensive  and  defensive  armour,  amounted  to 
about  70  Ibs.,  but  this  considerable  weight  was  only 
carried  by  a  soldier  in  battle.  On  the  march,  part  of 
the  armour  was  carried  in  baggage-carts,  or  else  the 
shield,  or  even  the  helmet,  was  given  to  a  slave  to 
carry  (vTraa-jrurTtjf).  But  as  the  inconvenience  of  the 


FIG.  187. 


478  GREEK  LIFE   AT   HOME. 

baggage- waggons  was  great,  and  the  number  of  slaves 
— which  had  formerly  been  very  considerable,  so  that 
among  the  Lacedaemonians  there  were  sometimes 
seven  helots  to  one  Spartan — gradually  diminished, 
we  notice  a  tendency  to  decrease  the  weight  of  the 
soldier's  armour,  first  by  substituting  for  the  brazen 
cuirass  a  tunic  of  leather  plated  with  brass  and 
shoulder-pieces,  and  afterwards  by  using  a  small 
round  shield  for  the  large  oval  one.  In  the  time  of 
the  Persian  wars  the  light  infantry  took  the  place  of 
the  slaves,  who  had  formerly,  in  order  that  they  might 
not  be  a  useless  addition  to  the  army,  been  armed 
with  javelins  and  stones.  But  as  the  skill  required 
of  the  light-armed  troops  was  not  equally  developed 
among  all  nationalities,  it  was  necessary  here  to  supply 
their  defects  by  mercenary  soldiers.  Thus,  as  we  have 
already  mentioned,  the  Cretans  were  celebrated 
archers ;  excellent  slingers  came  from  Rhodes  and 
Thessaly  ;  and  the  best  javelin-throwers  from 
Acarnania  and  Aetolia.  These  three  kinds  of  light- 
armed  troops  were  distinct;  they  all  went  to  battle 
without  any  defensive  armour,  not  even  wearing  a 
helmet,  but  only  a  light  felt  cap  or  some  national  hat. 
Besides  these,  and  standing  midway  between  slaves 
and  light-armed  soldiers,  were  the  "  Peltasts," 
originally  a  Thracian  troop,  deriving  their  name 
from  the  pelta,  a  small  wooden  shield  covered  with 
leather,  which  resembled  the  crescent-shaped  shield 
of  the  Amazons ;  their  offensive  weapons  were  the 
sword,  a  long  spear,  and  four  or  five  little  javelins. 
The  light-armed  troops  and  peltasts  were  placed  in 
the  field,  now  in  front,  now  behind  the  main  body  of 
the  army,  on  the  wings,  or  wherever  seemed  good  to 
the  general;  they  were  also  used  a  good  deal  for 
sallies,  archery,  as  spies,  in  ambushes,  etc. 


WAR    A.ND   SEAFARING. 


479 


The  Greeks  did  not  attach  any  great  importance 
to  the  cavalry,  which  was  in  part  the  result  of  the 
mountainous  nature  of  their  country,  where. cavalry 
regiments  could  seldom  be  properly  deployed.  Con- 
sequently the  Greek  cavalry,  as  a  rule,  rode  badly 
and  with  uncertainty ;  they  only  fought  against  each 
other,  and  never  attacked  closed  ranks  of  infantry,  but 


Fio.  188. 


Fio.  189. 


pursued  them  when  they  were  thrown  into  confusion ; 
regular  cavalry  attacks,  hi  which  the  horse  not  only 
carries  its  rider,  but  also  is  a  means  of  attack,  were 
unknown.  The  horses  wore  saddle-cloths,  not  regular 
saddles,  and  bit  and  bridle,  and  armour — consisting  of 
head-piece,  breast-plate,  and  side-pieces.  The  rider 
wore  a  brazen  cuirass,  with  neck-pieces,  protected  his 
abdomen  by  the  usual  leathern  apron  with  metal 
coverings,  and  also  wore  a  special  kind  of  mail  over 
arms  and  shoulders;  the  hips  were  also  protected. 


480  GREEK   LIFE  AT  HOME. 

The  shield  was  not  used  for  ordinary  service,  the 
offensive  weapons  were  a  long  lance  and  a  sword. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  spurs  were  used  at  that 
time,  but  it  is  possible  that  they  wore  them  only  on 
one  foot,  as  the  statues  of  the  Amazons  seem  to  show ; 
Figs.  188  and  189  represent  Greek  spurs,  still  in 
existence.  Horse-shoes  and  stirrups  were  unknown, 
the  rider  sprang  on  his  horse  with  the  help  of  his 
lance,  or  else  used  some  stone,  branch,  or  other  object 
to  enable  him  to  mount. 

We  do  not  propose  to  enter  into  detail  concerning 
the  arrangement  and  discipline,  tactics  and  strategy, 
of  the  Greek  armies.  A  few  words  must  be  said 
about.  Greek  sieges.  Schliemann's  excavations  at 
Mycenae  and  Tiryns  have  proved  to  us  the  magni- 
ficence of  some  ancient  fortifications.  It  is,  therefore, 
natural  that  the  siege  of  a  strongly-fortified  place  was 
a  difficult  matter  for  a  Greek  army,  since  effective  be- 
sieging machines  were  only  very  gradually  invented. 
For  centuries  they  contented  themselves  with  simply 
surrounding  a  city  and  trying  to  force  it  by  hunger ; 
an*  even  more  favourite  device  was  trickery  or  treach- 
ery; they  were  neither  able  to  storm  a  town  nor 
make  breaches  in  the  wall  The  first  machine  for 
storming  made  use  of  by  the  Greeks  was  the  ram,  an 
invention  of  the  Carthaginians,  but  this,  too,  was 
ineffectual  against  very  strong  walls.  They,  therefore, 
very  often  resorted  to  the  device  of  undermining  the 
walls  in  order  to  make  them  fall;  sometimes  they 
raised  the  ground  for  attack  by  constructing  a  mound, 
or  made  movable  towers  in  order  to  enable  them  to 
fight  from  the  same  height  as  the  garrison.  There 
were  various  devices,  too,  for  setting  the  town,  or  at 
any  rate  its  fortifications,  on  fire ;  and  if  the  local  con- 
ditions permitted  it,  they  sometimes  tried  to  reduce 


WAR  AND  SEAFARING.  481 

the  besieged  to  extremities  by  cutting  off  their  drink- 
ing water,  or  producing  an  artificial  flood.  This  pri- 
mitive kind  of  siege  warfare  only  gave  way  to  a  more 
rational  method  during  the  Macedonian  wars ;  it  was 
in  particular  the  merit  of  King  Philip,  instead  of 
enclosing  a  city,  to  concentrate  the  attack  on  one 
point  in  the  wall,  in  which  breaches  were  made.  The 
discovery  of  heavy  artillery,  the  perfection  of  breaching 
implements,  movable  batteries,  protective  apparatus, 


190. 


and  revolving  turrets,  did  not  take  place  tfll  the  Alex- 
andrine age. 

It  was  a  natural  consequence  of  the  geographical 
position  of  Greece  that  seafaring  developed  far  more 
quickly.  Even  in  the  heroic  period  fairly  good 
ships  were  built,  though  they  were  better  suited  for 
coasting  than  sailing  in  the  open  sea.  They  were 
moved  by  twenty  to  fifty  sailors,  seated  on  thwarts 
on  either  side  of  the  ship,  while  their  oars  were  sus- 
pended in  leathern  straps  between  the  rowlocks ;  if 
the  wind  was  favourable,  they  replaced  the  oars  by  a 
sail  suspended  from  the  mast  by  a  sail -yard ;  in  the 
Q 


482 


GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 


stern,  the  helmsman  directed  the  course  of  the  ship 
with  the  rudder.  The  ship  of  Odysseus  was  thus 
represented,  even  in  later  art,  cutting  its  way  through 
the  sea  (compare  Fig.  191).  Still,  this  picture,  which 
dates  from  a  much  later  period,  cannot  give  us  a 
proper  conception  of  the  build  of  the  Homeric  ships  ; 


Fio.  191. 


we  should  rather  turn  to  the  representations  from 
ancient  vases  on  Figs.  192  and  193,  in  spite  of  the 
roughness  and  smallness  of  the  drawing.  '  Both  these 
have  a  strong  spur  at  the  prow,  and  were,  therefore, 
apparently  used  for  naval  warfare,  with  which  the 
Homeric  age  was  not  yet  acquainted.  Probably  the 
ships  of  the  heroic  age  had  high  projecting  ends  both 
forward  and  aft. 

As  in  the  Homeric  age,  so  probably  also  hi  the 
following  period,  the  ships  were  constructed  in  such  a 


WAR  AND  SEAFARING. 


483 


manner  as  to  be  tolerably  flat,  and  accommodate  only 
one  line  of  rowers  on  each  side ;  consequently,  in 
large  ships  there  would  be  fifty  oarsmen  or  more  on 
either  side.  But  they  soon  began  to  build  the  ships 
higher  and  to  arrange  the  oarsmen  in  several  ranks 
one  above  another,  in  two  rows,  as  in  Fig.  194,  but 


FIG.  192. 


Fio.  193. 


more  commonly  in  three  rows,  and  these  ships  were 
then  called  Triremes ;  in  later  times,  especially  after 
the  fourth  century,  there  were  four  or  even  six  rows, 
and  possibly  still  more.  The  arrangement  of  these 
rowers'  benches  is  of  particular  interest,  and  is  made 
tolerably  clear  by  the  Athenian  relief  represented  in 
Fig.  195.*  The  rowers'  benches  occupied  the  whole 

*  Compare  an  essay  by  Raoul  Lemaitre,  "  Sur  la  disposition  dea 
rameurs  sur  la  triere  antique,"  in  the  "  Revue  Archeologique "  foi 
1883,  pp.  89  and  fol.  His  conclusions,  however,  differ  from  Graser't. 
The  question  of  the  arrangement  of  oars  is  still  an  open  one. 


484 


GREEK   LIFE   AT    HOME. 


space  of  the  two  long  sides  of  the  ship,  with  the 
exception  of  the  two  ends ;  they  were  arranged  over 
one  another  in  rows  of  different  heights,  not  separated 
by  partitions,  but  only  by  the  open  structure  of  wood. 
In  each  row  each  rower  sat  immediately  in  front  of 
the  next  man  in  a  straight  line,  but  there  is  a  differ- 
ence of  opinion  as  to  the  manner  in  which  the  rowing 
benches  were  arranged.  According  to  Graser,  they 


were  immediately  under  one  another,  but  the  rowers 
did  not  sit  perpendicularly  above  each  other  ;  but  in 
order  to  save  space  as  much  as  possible,  and  partly  to 
facilitate  their  movements,  they  were  arranged  in 
such  a  way  that  the  seat  of  the  next  highest  was  in 
the  same  direction  and  height  as  the  head  of  the  man 
on  the  next  seat  below,  so  that  each  man,  instead  of 
sitting  directly  under  the  man  above,  sat  a  little 
towards  the  back,  and,  in  moving,  kept  his  arms 
immediately  under  the  seat  of  the  man  above. 
Lemaitre,  on  the  other  hand,  assumes  that  only  the 
lowest  benches  were  close  to  the  edge,  and  those 


WAR  AND   SEAFARING.  485 

above  were  removed  by  the  breadth  of  the  thwart, 
the  third  by  two  breadths,  in  which  case  the  height 
must  have  been  so  arranged  that  the  oar  of  the  man 
above  always  passed  over  the  head  of  the  one  imme- 
diately below.  It  is  impossible  to  attain  any  certainty 


FIG.  195. 


about  this  matter ;  both  hypotheses  are  open  to  objec- 
tion. For  the  length  of  the  oars  naturally  increased 
in  proportion  to  the  distance  of  the  rowers  from  the 
water,  and  those  of  the  highest  row  must  have  been 
longest ;  according  to  Graser's  arrangement,  the  length 
of,  the  oars  increased  1  yard  for  each  row,  so  that  in 
a  ship  of  five  rows  the  lowest  rank  had  oars  2|  yards 
long,  the  highest  6£;  according  to  the  arrangement 


486  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

of  Leinaitre,  the  length  was  even  greater,  but  there 
was  this  advantage,  that  the  longer  oars  had  also 
longer  leverage,  and  could  consequently  be  more 
easily  controlled.  The  larger  the  number  of  rows, 
the  greater  in  consequence  was  the  length  of  the  oars, 
but  still  they  were  able  to  build  and  control  ships  of 
fifteen  or  sixteen  rows.  The  splendid  ship  of  Ptolemy 
Philopater  is  said  to  have  had  no  less  than  forty  rows, 
and  the  length  of  the  highest  oars  was  18£  yards ; 
but  this  was  not  a  ship  of  war,  and  was  only  used  in 
calm  water — in  fact,  a  modern  authority  on  seafaring 
regards  the  whole  description  of  this  forty-decker  as 
a  satire.  Of  course,  the  larger  the  ships  the  greater 
the  number  of  oarsmen  required,  since  the  number 
of  rows  would  be  greater ;  a  "  trireme  "  was  rowed 
by  174  men,  a  "  quinquereme "  by  310,  the  arrange- 
ment being  that  each  higher  row  had  two  men  more 
than  the  one  below,  because  the  bulk  of  the  ship  was 
broadened  towards  the  top.  Lr  rowing  the  greatest 
regularity  of  movement  was  indispensable ;  this  was 
attained  by  the  command  of  a  special  captain,  and 
also  by  marking  time  with  flutes,  so  that  all  the  oars 
might  strike  the  water  at  the  same  moment  Here 
we  meet  with  a  problem,  hitherto  unsolved :  how  was 
it  possible  for  the  long  oars  of  the  upper  rows  to 
keep  stroke  with  the  short  ones  of  the  lower  rows  ? 
This  would  have  been  impossible  if  the  same  word 
of  command  was  given  to  all  the  rowing  benches, 
since  the  stroke  of  a  long  oar  would  naturally  require 
more  time  than  that  of  a  short  one.  Another  diffi- 
culty is  the  great  number  of  oarsmen  which  would 
have  been  required  for  Attica,  where  the  number  of 
ships  was  very  considerable;  still,  the  number  of 
sailors  and  marines  was  very  small,  as  in  naval 
warfare  the  main  object  was  to  sink  the  enemy's  ship 


WAR  AND  SEAFARING.  487 

by  means  of  the  prow,  while  they  did  not  trouble 
uiuch  about  shooting  and  fighting  at  a  distance. 

As  to  the  construction  of  the  ships,  the  prow  and 
stern  were,  generally  speaking,  of  similar  build  ;  both, 
as  a  rule,  ended  in  curves,  but  there  was  usually  a 
lofty  decoration  of  leaves  or  feathers  for  the  stern, 
while  at  the  prow  they  put  the  image  of  a  god,  or  the 
head  of  an  animal,  or  some  other  picture,  which  often 
showed  the  name  of  the  boat ;  these  were  constructed 
of  wood  or  bronze,  and  a  flag  waved  at  the  top.  Below 
the  prow,  for  the  most  part  under  water,  lay  the  strong 
beak,  made  of  boards  firmly  fastened  into  the  bow, 
and  protected  in  front  by  massive  iron  points.  On 
the  deck  there  was  usually  a  little  canopy  at  both 
ends;  in  Fig.  194  this  is  seen  on  the  front  deck, 
and  apparently  also  in  Fig.  191,  though  this  may  be  a 
little  tent  used  as  a  protection  against  the  sun,  such 
as  was  often  placed  on  the  upper  deck.  The  tower 
at  the  back,  and  the  little  hut  for  the  helmsman  from 
which  he  directed  both  rudders,  are  wanting  on  these 
pictures.  The  old  ships  had  two  rudders,  to  the  right 
and  left  of  the  stern  ;  by  means  of  a  mechanical  con- 
trivance, which  is,  however,  not  represented  in  the 
pictures,  these  two  rudders  could  be  directed  at  the 
same  time  in  a  parallel  direction. 

In  Figs.  192  and  193  we  observe  near  the  bow  a 
round  opening,  corresponding  to  a  similar  hole  in 
Fig.  191 ;  the  object  of  this  was  to  enable  the  anchor- 
ropes  to  pass  through  the  ship  to  the  anchors,  which 
resembled  our  modern  ones  in  all  essentials,  and  were 
hung  up  when  not  in  use  on  little  projections  at  both 
sides  of  the  pj-ow,  which  also  served  the  purpose  of 
keeping  off  the  enemy's  ship  when  avoiding  an  attack. 
On  the  great  mainmast  there  were,  as  a  rule,  two 
square  yard  sails,  fastened  one  over  another,  with  a 


488  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

third  above  them,  and  at  the  top  of  the  mast  two 
triangular  topsails.  The  ships  of  war  also  had  two 
sails  following  the  length  of  the  ship,  which  were  of 
particular  importance  for  turning  when  the  wind 
blew  fr<5m  the  side.  The  Attic  inscriptions  give  us 
many  other  details  about  seafaring,  but  these  are  only 
of  special  interest  for  professional  sailora. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

AGRICULTURE,   TRADE,   AND   HANDICRAFT. 

The  Ancient  Greek  Prejudice  Against  Labour—  Cultivation  of  the 
Soil — Agricultural  Implements — Cattle  Rearing — Handicrafts — 
The  Organisation  of  Labour— Various  Trades— Wholesale  and 
Retail — Bankers  and  Money-Changers. 

THE  domain's  on  which  the  activity  of  the  ancients 
was  chiefly  concentrated  were  agriculture  and  cattle 
rearing,  trade,  and  handicraft  Intellectual  or  artistic 
labour,  which  at  the  present  day  plays  a  very  im- 
portant part  as  a  means  of  earning  a  livelihood,  was 
hardly  considered  at  all  in  Ancient  Greece,  and  the 
artist,  if  he  worked  for  pay,  was  put  on  the  same 
footing  as  the  artisan  ;  in  fact  there  were  very  few 
intellectual  professions  connected  with  money.  These 
circumstances  changed  somewhat  in  the  Hellenistic 
period;  but  even  there  the  intellectual  labour  of 
teachers,  physicians,  etc.,  would  be  placed  in  the 
same  class  with  other  occupations,  though  gradually, 
as  the  payment  of  this  labour  increased,  so  did  also 
the  estimation  in  which  it  was  held. 

As  to  the  statistical  relation  in  which  ^agriculture, 
industry,  and  trade  stood  to  one  another,  there  were 
naturally  many  changes  as  civilisation  advanced ;  and 
again,  local  circumstances  in  every  part  of  Greece,  in 
every  district,  and  perhaps  even  every  city,  as  well 
as  the  geographical  position,  the  nature  of  the  land, 
the  adaptability  of  the  soil  for  cultivation,  etc., 
were  of  importance  for  these  branches;  and  again, 
Q* 


490  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

peculiarities  of  race,  national  prejudices,  were  often  of 
great  weight  in  the  choice  of  a  profession.  It  was  an 
idea  not  peculiar  to  the  Doric  races,  though  most 
strongly  developed  among  them,  that  in  reality  every 
kind  of  work  done  for  pay  was  unsuitable  for  a  citizen, 
and  that  his  whole  activity  should  be  given  without 
reward  to  the  State ;  but  this  theory — though  the  main 
features  of  it  are  defended  even  by  philosophers  such 
as  Plato  and  Aristotle,  and  it  rests  on  the  assumption 
that  every  citizen  must  have  sufficient  possessions  for 
himself  and  his  family,  and  obtain  what  he  requires  by 
the  labour  of  slaves — was  only  gradually  developed, 
and  was  quite  foreign  to  the  Homeric  age,  as  well  as 
to  the  period  immediately  following,  in  which  Hesiod 
could  venture  to  say  that  not  work  but  idleness  was 
disgraceful.  Changes  in  political  conditions  pro- 
duced other  changes  as  well  When  the  old  Monarchy 
was  succeeded  by  the  rule  of  the  Oligarchs,  and  the 
privileged  class  being  in  possession  of  landed  pro- 
perty and  numerous  slaves,  devoted  its  whole  activity 
to  military  and  political  matters,  the  prejudice 
originated  that  only  such  occupations  were  worthy  of 
a  free  and  noble  citizen,  and  that  all  work  was  low 
and  servile ;  and  it  is  natural  that  this  opinion  should 
have  been  obstinately  maintained  at  Sparta,  because 
the  constitution  there  kept  the  character  of  the  Olig- 
archy most  rigidly.  In  other  places  a  healthier  con- 
ception of  work  gradually  prevailed,  and,  in  particular, 
the  tyrants  of  the  older  period  tried  to  combat  the 
disinclination  of  the  citizens  for  professional  activity ; 
in  their  case,  however,  it  was  not  only  reasons  of 
political  economy,  but  also  political  expediency  that 
influenced  them,  since  they  did  not  wish  to  see  their 
rule  threatened  by  an  unoccupied  warlike  population 
longing  for  a  share  in  the  government  But  these 


AGRICULTURE,   TRADE,   AND  HANDICRAFT.        491 

efforts  were  only  partially  crowned  with  success,  and 
though  in  the  time  of  absolute  democracy  many 
citizens  practised  occupations  connected  with  money, 
yet  the  old  idea  still  prevailed  that  those  really  stood 
on  a  higher  footing  whose  fortune  permitted  them  to 
live  without  any  definite  occupation,  and  we  con- 
stantly meet  with  traces  of  it  even  in  a  philosopher 
like  Socrates,  whose  statement  that  idleness  was  the 
sister  of  freedom  reflects  the  opinion  of  the  majority 
with  particular  emphasis. 

The  prejudice  against  manj?  professions  was  not 
equally  directed  against  all.  Agriculture  was  least 
liable  to  it.  In  the  heroic  period,  agriculture  was  the 
chief  occupation,  not  only  of  the  lower  classes,  but 
even  of  the  nobles  and  princes,  who  regarded  it  as 
no  disgrace  to  perform  with  their  own  hands,  or  super- 
intend, many  duties  connected  with  farming.  It  was 
natural  that  a  change  should  be  gradually  introduced 
in  these  patriarchal  conditions,  and  this  was  due  not 
only  to  political  revolutions,  but  also  to  the  advance 
of  civilisation,  and  the  growth  of  industrial  and  com- 
mercial life  in  Greece ;  yet  agriculture  always  remained 
one  of  the  most  respected  occupations,  especially  in 
those  states  whose  geographical  position  cut  them  off 
from  trade,  and  the  nature  of  whose  soil  was  suited 
for  agriculture  and  cattle-rearing ;  in  these  places  the 
citizens  too  took  part  in  these  occupations,  though  in 
other  places,  especially  at  Sparta,  any  work  performed 
with  the  hands  was  regarded  as  unsuitable  for  citizens, 
and  was  assigned  to  slaves  or  free  subjects.  In  the 
large  towns,  such  as  Athens,  where  trade  and  industry 
attained  a  great  height,  and  democracy,  growing  freer 
and  freer,  tended  to  advance  idleness  by  official  gifts  to 
citizens,  such  as  the  show-money  and  public  meals,  agri- 
culture lost  in  general  estimation,  and  the  citizen  of  a 


492  GREEK  LIFE  AT  HOME. 

large  town  regarded  the  industrious  countryman  as  a 
creature  of  a  lower  rank.  This  was  but  natural,  and  we 
find  analogy  for  it  in  many  of  our  modern  conditions. 
Local  circumstances  naturally  had  a  good  deal  to  do 
in  determining  the  position  occupied  by  an  agricul- 
tural population.  Where  the  land  was  good  and  the 
profits  considerable,  the  farmer  occupied  a  better 
position  than  in  those  places  where  but  a  poor 
harvest  rewarded  his  toil.  The  soil  of  Greece 
was  not  everywhere  suited  for  agriculture,  and  in 
many  places  it  required  the  most  careful  labour  to 
win  any  fruits  from  it.  In  Hellas,  the  mountainous 
districts  are  more  extensive  than  the  plains  suitable 
for  cultivation ;  consequently  in  many  places  they 
had  to  construct  artificial  terraces,  because  the  stony 
ground  would  not  otherwise  have  borne  any  fruit.  In 
other  places  too,  want  of  water,  which  in  the  hot 
season  of  the  year  often  amounted  to  actual  drought, 
necessitated  artificial  irrigation  by  means  of  canals 
and  drainage,  and  again,  the  mountain  brooks,  which 
often  overflowed  their  banks  in  the  rainy  season 
and  threatened  destruction  to  the  fields,  had  to  be 
regulated  by  means  of  dykes.  Descriptions  of  such 
structures  have  come  down  to  us,  and  many  traces  of 
them  may  still  be  found  in  Greece,  some  of  them  even 
pointing  to  very  considerable  technical  knowledge ; 
the  State,  too,  sometimes  undertook  work  of  this  kind, 
as  is  proved  by  the  office  of  water-superin tendon  t, 
who,  hi  many  places,  had  the  control  of  the  natural 
and  artificial  watercourses,  and  whose  duty  it  was  to 
prevent  undue  use,  and  to  inflict  fines  in  such  cases. 

We  know  very  little  about  the  management  of 
farms  and  the  arrangements  for  dividing  land  among 
large  landowners  or  small  cultivators,  in  the  separate 
districts  of  Greece.  Greek  antiquity  shows  no  traces  of 


AGRICULTURE,  TRADE,   AND   HANDICRAFT.        493 

latifundia,  such  as  gradually  made  way  in  Italy ;  there 
were  some  large  estates  with  numerous  slave- workers, 
but  small  farms  were  commonest.  In  some  districts, 
as  for  instance  in  Arcadia,  a  small  peasantry  were  the 
chief  part  of  the  population,  and  it  is  not  surprising, 
therefore,  that  even  the  leaders  of  the  State  did  not 
shrink  from  taking  part  in  agricultural  labour,  though 
the  larger  landowners  left  this  to  their  slaves  and 
overseers.  The  Athenians,  however,  regarded  the 
rough  manners  of  these  smaller  farmers  as  coarse,  and 
the  citizens  of  the  larger  towns,  accustomed  to  the 
refinements  of  ordinary  life,  mocked  at  their  rustic 
manners  ;  we  scarcely  over  find  any  recognition  of  the 
fact  that  a  strong  and  healthy  race  of  peasants  to- 
gether with  an  industrious  middle-class  is  the  best 
means  for  maintaining  the  life  of  a  state. 

In  its  technical  aspects,  ancient  agriculture  re- 
mained in  much  the  same  state  throughout  the  whole 
of  antiquity  as  it  occupied  in  the  heroic  age,  and 
probably  this  was  the  common  inheritance  of  the 
Indo- Germanic  race.  In  Homer,  we  find  the  custom 
which  always  prevailed  afterwards,  of  alternating  only 
between  harvest  and  fallow ;  even  the  succeeding  agc& 
seem  to  have  known  nothing  of  the  rotation  of  crops. 
The  implements  used  for  the  necessary  farming  occu- 
pations were  of  the  simplest  kind,  in  particular  the 
primitive  plough,  which  was  not  sufficient  to  tear  up 
the  earth,  so  that  they  had  to  use  the  mattock  in 
addition ;  they  had  no  harrow  or  scythe,  in  place  of 
which  they  used  the  sickle,  and  their  threshing  ar- 
rangements were  most  unsatisfactory,  since  they  simply 
drove  oxen,  horses,  or  mules  over  the  threshing  floor, 
and  beat  out  the  ears  with  their  hoofs,  by  which  means 
a  great  part  of  the  harvest  was  lost.  It  was  only  the 
large  number  of  labourers  at  the  disposal  of  the 


494 


GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

farmers,  in  consequence  of  the 
numerous  slaves,  to  which  at 
times,  when  there  was  a  press 
of  work,  they  added  hiret, 
labourers,  and  the  great  care 
taken  in  manuring  and  im- 
proving the  ground,  etc.,  that 
enabled  them  to  earn  a  living 
at  all.  Great  wealth  was  never 
attained  in  ancient  Greece  by 
agriculture,  certainly  not  by 
growing  corn  ;  vines  and  oh"  ves 
supplied  better  profits,  though 
here  too  the  instruments  used 
were  of  the  simplest,  but  the 
ground  was  especially  favour- 
able to  their  cultivation.  Oil, 
in  particular,  could  be  supplied 
by  Greece  to  foreign  countries, 
but  corn  did  not  grow  in  a 
quantity  sufficient  to  provide 
their  own  population,  and  con- 
sequently they  had  to  import  a 
great  deal  from  foreign  coun- 
tries, especially  from  the  Black 
Sea,  and  afterwards  too  from 
Egypt. 

Greek  writers  give  us  very 
little  information  about  the  life  of 
the  country  people;  a  few  simple 
pictures  taken  from  vase  paint- 
ings afford  some  little  notion  of 
it.  Fig.  196  represents  three 
countrymen  surrounded  by  a 
variety  of  animals :  deer,  lizards. 


AGRICULTURE,  TRADE,   AND   HANDICRAFT.        495 

a  tortoise,  a  strange  bird,  and  another  creature,  perhaps 
meant  to  represent  a  locust ;  each  of  the  men  is  direct- 
ing a  plough  drawn  by  two  oxen,  holding  the  handle  in 
one  hand,  and  in  the  other  the  goad-stick  for  urging  on 
the  beasts.  Behind  one  of  the  ploughmen  walks  a  man 
with  a  largo  basket  on  his  left  arm,  in  which,  no  doubt, 
there  are  supposed  to  be  seeds,  which  he  is  about  to 


FIG.  197. 


scatter  with  his  right  hand.  Fig.  197  represents  a  scene 
from  the  olive  harvest.  On  the  right,  and  left  of  an 
olive  tree  sit  two  men,  before  them  on  the  ground 
stand  jars ;  one  of  them  holds  a  little  flask  in  his  left 
hand,  and  appears  to  be  squeezing  the  juice  of  an  olive 
into  it  through  a  funnel,  in  order  to  test  the  quality  of 
the  harvest.  The  inscription  on  the  picture  is,  "  0, 
Father  Zeus,  would  that  I  might  grow  rich ! "  The 
reverse  side  of  the  vessel,  not  represented  here,  shows 
the  fulfilment  of  this  simple  prayer  in  the  picture 
and  inscription. 


496  GREEK   LIFE  AT  HOME. 

Cattle-rearing  played  a  very  important  part  in 
Greek  farming.  In  the  time  of  Homer  it  even  ex- 
ceeded agriculture  in  importance  ;  the  wealth  of  great 
people  at  that  time  consisted  chiefly  in  herds ;  to  give 
cattle  as  a  bridal  gift  was  very  common;  in  calcu- 
lations of  value  cattle  formed  the  basis  instead  of 
coined  money,  which  was  at  that  time  unknown.  The 
kinds  especially  cultivated  in  the  historic  period  were 
horses,  asses,  mules,  and  oxen,  and  also  sheep,  goats, 
and  swine.  Except  in  a  few  districts,  horse-rearing 
was  of  little  importance.  The  mountainous  nature  of 
the  country  made  the  use  of  horses  for  driving  difficult, 
nor  do  they  seem  to  have  been  required  for  carrying 
burdens ;  they  were  chiefly  used  for  riding  purposes, 
for  the  cavalry,  and  also  for  travelling,  racing,  etc. ; 
and  in  connection  with  racing  horse-rearing  became  a 
favourite  occupation  of  the  aristocracy,  and  almost  a 
mania  at  Athens  at  the  time  of  the  Peloponnesian 
war,  when  many  young  men  were  ruined  by  it. 
Horse-rearing  was  best  developed  in  Thessaly,  where 
the  wide  plains  were  suitable  for  the  purpose.  The 
Thessalian  cavalry  was  always  noted  for  its  quantity 
and  excellence.  For  domestic  use  mules  and  asses 
took  the  place  of  horses,  especially  as  beasts  of  burden. 
The  mules  were  used  for  drawing  and  for  the  plough, 
while  the  asses  were  chiefly  employed  for  carrying 
burdens.  Cattle-rearing  seems  to  have  been  more  im- 
portant in  the  Homeric  age  than  afterwards,  when  the 
needs  of  the  population  could  not  be  satisfied  by  the 
home  growth,  and  importation  of  foreign  cattle  from 
the  Black  Sea  and  from  Africa  was  necessary.  The 
small  number  of  herds  of  cattle  was  probably  due  to 
the  fact  that  in  Greek  antiquity  very  little  cow's  milk 
was  drunk,  but  chiefly  goat's  milk.  Sheep- rearing, 
however,  was  very  general,  and  brought  to  great 


AGRICULTURE,  TRADE,  AND   HANDICRAFT.        497 

perfection,  since  they  not  only  used  the  flesh  and  milk 
of  the  sheep  for  food,  but  in  particular  required  their 
skin  and  wool  for  clothing.  Linen  was  not  much  worn ; 
the  country  people  wore  sheepskins,  and  the  rest  of 
their  dress  was  almost  entirely  made  of  sheep's  wool. 
Excellent  qualities  of  this  were  produced  by  Hellas 
proper,  as  well  as  by  the  Greek  colonies  in  Asia  Minor 
and  Lower  Italy,  and  a  great  deal  of  it  was  exported 
to  foreign  countries,  where  the  woollen  stuffs  of  Asia 
Minor,  Attica,  and  Megara,  were  held  in  great  repute 
from  most  ancient  times.  Goats  were  chiefly  kept 
for  the  sake  of  the  milk ;  the  skins  were  used  by  the 
peasants  for  clothing.  The  goat's  hair  was  woven  into 
stuff,  not  in  Greece  itself,  but  probably  in  Northern 
Africa  and  Cilicia,  where  a  kind  of  coarse  cloth  was 
manufactured  of  it,  which  however  was  not  often  used 
for  clothing.  The  facility  of  goat-rearing,  which  re- 
quired no  special  care,  and  could  be  carried  on  even  on 
rocky  ground,  where  but  little  grass  grew,  enabled  it 
to  become  very  extensive,  and  we  find  it,  in  fact, 
throughout  almost  the  whole  of  Greece  in  ancient 
times.  Swine-rearing,  on  the  other  hand,  played  a  very 
small  part,  for  it  was  not  sufficiently  remunerative. 
Although  the  flesh  was  used  for  food,  yet,  in  the 
historic  period  it  was  not  so  popular  a  dish  as  in  the 
age  of  Homer,  and  they  did  not  understand  how  to 
draw  a  profit  in  other  ways  from  swine.  Cattle-rearing 
was  conducted  on  tolerably  rational  principles.  They 
were  very  careful  in  the  choice  of  the  animals  used  for 
breeding,  and  in  very  early  times  attempts  were  made 
to  improve  the  race  by  importing  foreign  kinds  from 
other  countries.  The  cattle  were  chiefly  fed  on  pas- 
ture ;  the  herds  were  driven  out  not  only  in  summer, 
but  even  in  winter,  when  the  climate  permitted  it ; 
and  in  summer  they  were  taken  to  the  mountains 


498  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

and  forests,  in  winter  to  the  plains.  The  sheep  got 
most  attention,  because  the  excellence  of  the  wool 
depended  on  the  care  they  received,  and  Diogenes  is 
supposed  to  have  said  that  it  was  better  at  Megara  to 
be  a  ram  than  the  son  of  a  citizen,  for  the  sheep  were 
carefully  covered  up,  but  the  children  were  allowed  to 
run  about  naked.  This  custom  of  covering  the  sheep 
with  skins  to  preserve  the  wool  existed  in  other  places 
too.  As  Greece  was  not  rich  hi  pasture  land,  there 
was  a  difficulty  occasionally  in  providing  sufficient 
pasture  for  the  herds  ;  sometimes  they  had  to  be  sent 
to  very  distant  parts,  it  even  happened  that  states 
made  treaties  together,  which  permitted  the  citizens 
of  one  state  to  use  the  pasture  land  of  another  for  a 
fixed  period. 

During  the  Homeric  age,  handicraftsmen  seem 
to  have  been  in  a  position  which,  corresponding  to 
the  ideas  entertained  in  ancient  times  about  physical 
labour,  was  by  no  means  despised.  This  is  easily 
comprehensible,  since  even  the  gods  were  represented 
as  undertaking  the  labour  of  artisans ;  Hephaestus 
working  at  a  forge,  Athene  weaving ;  and  we  find  even 
the  heroes,  the  princes,  and  nobles  sometimes  them- 
selves working  as  carpenters  and  joiners,  and  with 
their  own  hands  constructing  some  object  for  their 
home ;  nowhere  in  Homer  do  we  find  a  trace  of  con- 
tempt for  hand-work.  Of  course,  handicrafts  were 
not  much  developed  at  that  time,  and  there  were  only 
a  small  number  of  crafts  which  could  be  looked  upon 
as  actual  trades,  such  as  that  of  smiths,  workers  in 
gold,  carpenters,  stone  masons,  etc.,  while  many  occu- 
pations which  afterwards  formed  a  distinct  trade  were 
performed  at  home  by  the  masters  and  slaves.  In 
later  times  a  very  important  change  took  place  con- 
nected with  the  political  and  social  revolutions  already 


AGRICULTURE,  TRADE,  AND  HANDICRAFT.        499 

mentioned.  Agriculture  and  cattle-rearing  were  still 
regarded  as  an  occupation  which  a  free  citizen  might 
carry  on  without  degrading  himself,  since  the  more 
menial  part  of  the  work  was  performed  by  slaves  or 
hired  labourers,  and  the  master  only  superintended; 
but  the  work  of  the  handicraftsmen  was  designated 
by  them  with  the  word  mechanical  (fidvavaos;),  a 
word  indicating  a  contempt  that  cannot  be  expressed 
in  the  translation.  This  word  expressed  the  full  scorn 
felt  by  the  free  citizen  living  on  his  own  fortune,  and 
devoting  all  his  intellectual  and  physical  powers  to  the 
State — of  the  gentleman,  in  fact — for  the  man  with  the 
horny  hand,  who  toiled  in  his  workshop  to  earn  his  daily 
bread.  This  reproach  of  "mechanical"  was  never 
aimed  at  the  rich  owner  of  a  number  of  slaves,  who 
worked  for  his  benefit ;  a  factory  owner  need  not  take 
part  in  the  work  himself,  but  had  his  overseers  to 
attend  to  that;  it  was  the  little  man  who  had  no 
other  hands  to  work  for  him,  and  who  wielded  the 
hammer  himself,  or  who  worked  the  cloth  in  the 
fuller's  shop,  whom  f,hey  looked  down  on.  In  vain 
wise  lawgivers  tried  to  call  the  attention  of  the 
citizens  to  the  blessing  of  handicraft,  and  the  honour- 
able nature  of  this  occupation ;  hi  vain  the  democrats 
gave  political  equality  to  artisans  by  permitting  them 
to  vote  and  speak  hi  the  Assembly  of  the  people 
along  with  the  other  citizens ;  while  there  was  even  a 
law  forbidding  anyone  publicly  to  reproach  a  citizen 
with  his  occupation.  There  were  some  states  in  which 
an  important  part  of  the  prosperity  depended  on 
handicrafts,  and  there  a  more  moderate  view  gradually 
made  way,  but,  generally  speaking,  the  contempt  for 
handicraft  remained  and  continued,  the  rather  as 
even  philosophers  regarded  it  as  but  a  necessary 
evil  Doubtless  they  recognised  the  usefulness  of 


500  GREEK  LIFE  AT  HOME. 

handicrafts,  but  still  they  maintained  that  work  of  this 
kind  in  the  workshop,  near  the  hot  furnace  or  in  the 
gloomy  room,  was  not  suited  to  a  free  citizen,  and 
that  the  effort  of  gaining  money  which  was  connected 
with  it  was  injurious  to  the  mind,  and  made  it  coarse 
and  uncultivated,  and  it  was  thus  that  the  word 
banausos  came  to  be  synonymous  with  common, 
low,  and  stupid.  No  wonder  that  even  the  artists, 
whose  work  depended  on  handicraft,  and  who,  with 
few  exceptions,  worked  for  pay,  were  put  in  the  same 
class  with  shoemakers,  bakers,  and  smiths!  It  is 
strange  indeed,  that  this  depreciation  of  handicraft 
observed  throughout  Greek  literature  in  no  way  pre- 
vented the  development  and  perfection  of  the  technical 
arts  of  Greece.  There  were  many  branches  of  it  which 
continued  for  centuries  at  the  same  point  without 
making  any  technical  advances;  but  still  trades  attained 
a  high  degree  of  perfection  in  antiquity,  though  it  was 
chiefly  in  those  where  the  practical  element  was  not 
as  important  as  the  artistic  that  the  natural  sense  of 
beauty  of  the  Greeks  made  itself  felt,  so  that 
there  are  numerous  productions  of  ancient  handicraft 
which  even  our  modern  trades  cannot  rival  In  fact, 
we  might  almost  say  that,  with  the  exception  of  such 
trades  as  bakers,  butchers,  or  fullers,  Greek  handicraft 
in  almost  every  branch  developed  into  art,  while  at 
the  present  day  there  are  only  a  few  branches  which 
rise  above  the  ordinary  craft  level. 

The  handicrafts  were  partly  in  the  hands  of 
citizens,  and  partly  in  those  of  free  settlers  (peroiKoi) 
and  slaves.  The  proportion  in  which  they  were 
divided  among  these  three  classes  varied  a  good  deal 
according  to  time  and  the  nature  of  the  occupation. 
A.t  Athens  the  number  of  free  citizens  who  carried  on 
handicrafts  was  not  small,  in  spite  of  the  contempt  in 


AGRICULTURE,   TRADE,   AND   HANDICRAFT.        501 

which  they  were  held ;  in  Peloponnesus,  it  was  only 
Sparta  where  the  free  citizen  kept  aloof  from  all 
trades,  while  in  the  other  states  the  conditions  wore 
much  the  same  as  at  Athens  and  elsewhere.  The 
resident  foreigners  formed  a  very  important  part  of 
the  workmen ;  at  the  time  when  industry  flourished 
most  in  Attica,  trade  seems  to  have  been  almost 
entirely  in  their  hands ;  and  it  is  but  natural  that  in 
those  countries  where  the  free  citizens  kept  aloof 
from  trade,  the  settlers  who  performed  their  labour 
with  the  help  of  slaves  should  have  formed  a  great 
part  of  the  working  population.  Every  master  work- 
man whose  position  permitted  kept  working  slaves; 
rich  capitalists  invested  their  money  in  large  under- 
takings, in  which  the  work  was  done  by  a  great 
number  of  slaves,  who  either  belonged  to  them  or 
were  hired  for  the  purpose.  We  shall  have  occasion 
later  on  to  discuss  the  conditions  under  which  they 
worked. 

We  know  very  little  about  the  organisation  of 
labour.  There  were  no  castes  compelled  by  law  to 
undertake  certain  trades,  though  in  some  places  special 
occupations  were  hereditary;  thus,  for  instance,  at 
Sparta,  the  cooks  and  flute  players  always  belonged  to 
particular  families.  Otherwise,  when  we  find  any 
occupation  hereditary,  this  is  not  due  to  legal  com- 
pulsion, but  to  natural  causes;  thus  the  sons  of 
sculptors  very  often  became  sculptors,  or  the  medical 
profession  was  handed  down  in  certain  families,  and 
so  on.  Nor  do  we  meet  with  the  guilds  so  early 
developed  in  Italy ;  these  are  not  heard  of  until  the 
Roman  period,  when  we  find  them  in  Asia  Minor.  It 
is  uncertain  to  what  extent  the  State  was  concerned 
with  trade  and  its  productions.  There  do  not  seem 
to  have  been  any  limitations  put  upon  it  except 


502  GREEK  LIFE   AT  HOME. 

certain  police  regulations,  such  as  that  at  Athens, 
which  compelled  tanners  and  cheesemongers  to  have 
their  workshops  and  booths  outside  the  denser  parts 
of  the  city  on  account  of  the  smell  There  do  not 
seem  to  have  been  any  taxes  on 
trade ;  at  Athens  there  was  a  toll 
onhetaerae;  at  Byzantium  jugglers, 
soothsayers,  etc.,  paid  one;  but 
there  is  no  reason  to  suppose 
that  handicrafts  were  taxed  in  the 
same  way. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  enter 
into  the  technical  details  of  all  the 
trades.  A  few  pictures  taken  from 
the  life  of  artisans  must  suffice 
instead.  The  terra -cotta  figure, 
No.  198,  represents  an  artisan  in  his 
usual  costume,  the  exomis,  which 
left  the  right  side  free,  and  the 
pilos,  or  felt  cap;  it  is  not  clear 
from  the  picture  what  occupation 
he  is  carrying  on,  since  the  object 
in  his  left  hand  is  not  distinct. 
Fig.  199  introduces  us  to  a  shoe- 
maker at  his  work ;  he  is  seated  on 
a  low  stool  in  front  of  his  work- 
table,  and  with  one  hand  holds  a 
FIG.  198.  piece  of  leather,  stretched  over  a 

board  of  hard  wood ;  he  is  just 
about  to  cut  it  out  with  the  curved  shoemaker's 
knife ;  a  second  knife  is  suspended  above  near  some 
shoes,  a  hammer,  and  some  strips  of  leather  on 
the  wall.  Fig.  200  also  introduces  us  into  a  shoe- 
maker's workshop.  Here  a  girl  is  being  measured 
for  a  pair  of  shoes ;  for  this  purpose  she  has  got 


AGRICULTURE,   TRADE,   AND  HANDICRAFT.       503 

on  the  table,  so  that  the  bearded  workman,  who  is 
sitting  in  front  of  it,  may  mark  the  outline  of  her 
soles  on  the  leather  on  which  she  is  standing.  In  hia 


FIG.  199. 


right  hand  the  shoemaker  holds  his  crescent,  a  knife 
with  a  curved  blade ;  the  apprentice,  seated  on  the 
other  side,  is  holding  a  piece  of  leather  bent  together, 
probably  destined  to  make  the  upper  part  of  the  shoes. 
A  white-haired  old  man,  perhaps  the  master  of  the 


504  GREEK   LIFE    AT    HOME. 

workshop,  or  the  father  of  the  girl,  stands  by  giving 
directions  ;  tools,  lasts,  strips  of  leather,  and  such  like, 
are  hung  round  on  the  walls.  Fig.  201,  the  counter- 
part to  Fig.  200,  represents  a  smithy.  Near  the  hearth, 
of  Avhich  only  a  portion  can  be  seen,  crouches  a  young 
workman,  holding  a  piece  of  iron  on  the  anvil  with 
the  forceps  in  his  right  hand,  while  another  workman, 
also  without  any  clothing,  strikes  the  iron  with  a 
massive  hammer,  suspended  above  his  head  by  both 
hands.  Two  men  wearing  the  hiination,  perhaps 
visitors  to  the  workshop,  are  seated  on  low  stools.  On 
the  ground  lie  a  hammer  and  forceps ;  on  the  Avails 
hang  tools,  snch  as  hammers,  chisels,  drills,  and  pro- 
ductions of  the  workshop,  viz.  a  sword  and  a  can. 

Fig.  202  introduces  us  to  the  workshop  of  an 
artist  and  a  metal  founder.  In  the  presence  of  two 
men  dressed  in  the  hiination,  leaning  on  their  sticks, 
two  workmen  are  occupied  in  chiselling  or  working 
over  the  colossal  figure  of  a  warrior,  represented  in  a 
posture  of  attack,  which  is  placed  under  a  scaffolding. 
There  is  another  colossal  figure  of  a  naked  youth,  who 
has  fallen  to  the  ground,  and  is  stretching  out  his 
arms  as  though  praying  for  help.  Here  the  head  has 
not  yet  been  added,  for  as  a  rule  the  ancients  com- 
posed their  large  bronze  figures  in  several  pieces  ;  the 
head  lies  on  the  ground  near  the  statue,  at  which  a 
workman  is  doing  something  with  his  hammer,  per- 
haps trying  to  smooth  away  roughness  produced  in 
the  casting.  This  second  figure  seems  to  be  connected 
with  the  first,  and  the  whole  to  represent  a  group  of 
combatants.  A  little  further  is  the  furnace,  behind 
which  stands  an  assistant  looking  round ;  a  workman 
crouching  on  a  low  stool  wears  the  cap  usually  worn  by 
labourers  with  fire,  and  consequently  represented  in 
pictures  of  Hephaestus  ;  he  is  stoking  the  coals  in  the 


506  GREEK   LIFE  AT  HOME. 

furnace  to  a  fresh  glow  with  a  long  pole  curved  at  the 
end,  and  a  second  apprentice  stands  looking  at  him, 
leaning  on  his  hammer.  On  the  walls  hang  a  variety 
of  tools — hammers,  files,  a  saw,  etc. ;  also  models  of 
feet  and  heads,  and  little  tablets  representing  sketches 
of  whole  men  and  animals. 

No  less  interesting  is  the  workshop  of  a  vase 
painter,  represented  in  Fig.  203.  Here  we  see  a  youth 
seated  in  an  armchair,  with  a  large  two-handled  cup 
on  his  knee,  which  he  is  painting  with  the  brush  held 
in  his  right  hand ;  near  him  stands  a  little  low  table, 
on  which  are  several  pots  containing  paints  or  varnish. 
Behind  him  a  young  apprentice,  who  also  has  pots  on 
the  ground  near  him,  is  painting  a  large  amphora ;  on 
the  right  a  second  boy  and  a  girl  are  working  at  a  cup 
and  another  amphora,  while  a  jar  and  a  large  drink- 
ing-cup  (icdvBapos)  stand  on  the  ground,  and  other 
vessels  hang  on  the  wall.  Athene,  the  patroness  of 
the  arts,  and  Nike  are  hasting  to  crown  the  skilful 
labourers  as  the  reward  of  industry. 

It  is  difficult  to  determine  the  kind  of  work  which 
the  magnificent  old  man  in  Fig.  204,  a  terra-cotta 
figure  from  Tanagra,  is  doing ;  in  front  of  him  is  a 
board  with  which  he  is  occupied,  and  a  little  gridiron. 
Some  have  pronounced  him  a  baker,  others  a  maker 
of  plaster  of  Paris  tablets,  others  a  tanner  ;  perhaps  he 
might  be  a  cook,  seated  in  the  street,  and  frying  some 
quickly-cooked  dish  over  the  gridiron,  in  order  to  sell 
it  to  the  common  people,  who  often  procured  their  I 
food  hi  this  way  from  travelling  cooks. 

Even  worse  than  the  position  of  the  artisans  was 
that  of  the  hired  workmen,  that  is,  those  labourers 
who,  though  free  citizens,  had  not  learnt  any  technical 
art  with  which  they  could  earn  their  living,  and  who 
were  therefore  obliged  to  hire  themselves  out  for 


e-    •=. 


GREEK   LIFE  AT  HOME. 

hard  bodily  labour.  Not  only 
citizens,  but  even  their  wives, 
were  often  driven  by  need  to 
perform  such  menial  offices  as 
day  labourers  in  mills  or  in  the 
fields ;  many  such  workmen 
carried  weights  in  the  harbour, 
or  helped  to  load  or  unload  the 
goods,  to  carry  stones  for  build- 
ing, etc.  The  pay  was  very 
small,  if  only  on  account  of  the 
competition  of  slave  labour; 
sometimes  a  day's  wages  was 
three  or  four  obols,  though  higher 
amounts  are  mentioned.  The 
fleets,  and  in  particular  the  row- 
ing boats,  were  manned  out  of 
this  class,  which  was  socially  re- 
garded as  the  lowest,  and  which 
bore  the  name  of  "thetes." 

In  the  eyes  of  the  Greeks, 
tradesmen  stood  on  the  same 
footing  as  mechanical  labourers. 
There  was,  of  course,  a  distinc- 
tion ;  if  the  cultured  Greek,  who 
occupied  himself  only  with 
higher  intellectual  pursuits,  de- 
spised the  artisan  because  he 
regarded  his  bodily  activity  as 
unworthy  of  a  free  man,  the 
tradesman  seemed  to  him  con- 
temptible because  he  was  in- 
fluenced only  by  desire  for  gain, 
and  all  his  striving  was  to  get 
the  advantage  over  others.  The 


510  GREEK  LIFE  AT   HOME. 

profit  and  wealth  accruing  to  so  many  Greek  states 
from  trade  was  not  sufficient  to  decrease  the  prejudice 
against  money-making  occupations,  even  the  common 
people  were  not  able  to  understand  that  the  merchant, 
on  account  of  the  risk  of  injury,  or  even  loss  of  his 
goods,  changing  conditions  of  price,  and  all  his  own 
trouble  ^involved,  was  obliged  to  demand  a  higher 
price  for  his  wares  than  what  had  been  originally  paid 
by  himself;  and  the  opinion  that  the  merchant's 
business  was  based  on  love  of  gain  and  deceit 
was  so  common  that  even  a  philosophical  intellect 
like  Aristotle's  was  under  the  influence  of  this 
prejudice.  It  is  possible  that  the  Greek  merchants 
often  deserved  the  reputation  of  dishonesty  which 
they  bore ;  their  predecessors,  the  Phoenicians,  who 
had  formerly  carried  on  the  whole  trade  of  Greece, 
had  not  unduly  been  reproached  with  deceit  and  even 
robbery  and  piracy,  and  it  is  possible  that  there  were 
traces  of  this  still  visible  in  the  Greek  merchants. 
Still  the  contempt  for  the  merchant  class  was  not 
equally  directed  at  all ;  the  wholesale  dealer  who  im- 
ported his  wares  from  a  distance,  and  had  little 
personal  contact  with  the  public,  was  less  affected  by 
it;  in  trading  cities,  such  as  Aegina  and  Athens, 
a  great  number  of  the  rich  citizens  belonged  to  this 
class.  But  the  small  trader  was  the  more  exposed  to 
the  reproach  of  false  weights  and  measures,  adultera- 
tion of  goods,  especially  food,  and  all  manner  of 
deceitful  tricks.  Some  complaints  were  made  that 
are  still  heard  at  the  present  day,  that  the  wine 
dealers  mixed  water  with  their  wine,  that  the  cloth - 
workers  used  artificial  dressing  to  make  their  materials 
look  thicker,  that  the  poulterers  blew  out  the  birds 
to  make  them  seem  fatter,  etc.  Worst  of  all  was  the 
reputation  of  the  corn  dealers.  The  division  between 


512  GREEK  LIFE   AT  HOME. 

wholesale  and  retail  traders  seems  to  have  been  some- 
what sharper  in  Greek  antiquity  than  at  the  present 
day,  partly  because  the  former  were  not  only  mer- 
chants but  also  seafarers.  The  wholesale  dealers  as  a 
rule  were  owners  of  ships ;  they  fetched  their  goods 
themselves  on  their  journeys,  or  commissioned  respon- 
sible subordinates  in  their  place.  The  ship  was  laden 
at  home  with  goods  which  were  likely  to  find  a  good 
sale  at  the  port  to  which  she  journeyed ;  of  course  the 
owner  made  inquiries  beforehand  about  the  best 
places  for  disposing  of  his  goods,  the  private  conditions, 
possible  competition,  etc.  It  was,  therefore,  very  im- 
portant to  hit  the  right  moment,  and  artificial 
manoeuvres  for  sending  up  the  price  of  goods  were 
not  unknown.  Arrived  at  their  destination,  the  wares 
were  publicly  sold,  for  which  purpose  bazaars  were 
erected  in  large  harbours  ;  then  the  goods  were  either 
bought  collectively  by  a  wholesale  dealer,  or  in  small 
quantities  by  smaller  traders ;  there  were  also  agents 
who  undertook  the  mediation  between  the  buyer  and 
seller  in  return  for  a  commission.  As  a  rule,  there- 
fore, goods  were  purchased  with  the  money,  chiefly 
products  of  the  country  which  might  be  sold  with 
advantage  at  home ;  it  was  almost  necessary  to  make 
fresh  purchases,  since  the  money  of  another  state 
would  have  no  value  at  home,  though  Attic  money 
could  pass  current  anywhere.  A  merchant  did  not 
always  content  himself  with  putting  in  at  one  single 
port ;  he  often  visited  a  succession  of  neighbouring 
ports,  calling  at  smaller  stations  on  the  way,  some- 
times selling,  sometimes  buying,  and  often  the  cargo  of 
a  ship  changed  three  or  four  times  during  a  journey. 
Probably  these  wholesale  dealers  did  not  deal  only 
with  particular  goods  as  at  the  present  day,  but  took 
anything  which  was  likely  to  find  a  good  sale,  such  as 


AGRICULTURE,   TRADE,  AND   HANDICRAFT.        513 

corn,  wine,  oil,  honey,  skins,  wool,  clothes,  textile 
ware,  metal  work,  even  statues  and  books.  Payment 
was  made  in  coined  money,  and  the  calculation  cannot 
always  have  been  an  easy  one,  owing  to  the  variety  of 
money  systems  prevailing  in  antiquity.  In  the 
Homeric  age  barter  was  usual,  but  afterwards  this 
ceased  in  civilised  countries,  though  in  some  districts, 
as  for  instance  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Black  Sea, 
it  continued  for  some  time  longer. 

Very  different  was  the  position  and  occupation  of 
the  retail  dealer  or  pedlar.  He  did  not  travel  by  sea, 
scarcely  even  by  land,  but  usually  carried  on  his 
business  at  one  place ;  he  either  bought  his  goods 
direct  from  the  producers  or  from  the  wholesale 
dealers,  and  offered  them  for  sale  in  open  shops  or  in 
booths  on  the  market-place;  in  large  towns  there 
were  special  stands  or  markets  for  particular  goods, 
but  those  who  offered  their  wares  at  these  places  were 
usually  the  producers  themselves,  thus  at  the  Pot 
Market  at  Athens,  the  wares  were  offered  by  real 
potters,  who  had  doubtless  made  them  themselves. 
We  must  therefore  distinguish  between  shopkeepers 
who  lived  only  by  trade,  and  did  not  themselves  pro- 
duce, and  producers,  who  brought  their  own  goods  to 
market ;  the  latter  were  regarded  as  merchants  by 
the  ancients,  and  the  hatred,  where  it  existed,  was 
chiefly  directed  at  the  small  shopkeepers,  who  sold 
their  wares  for  as  high  prices  as  possible.  In  small 
cities  the  circumstances  may  have  been  somewhat 
diffeient,  for  it  was  only  the  most  important  trades 
connected  with  food  and  clothing  that  were  carried 
on  there,  and  many  branches  were  not  represented  at 
all;  consequently  many  kinds  of  goods  had  to  be 
imported  for  sale  by  the  small  shopkeepers.  No 
doubt  the  inhabitants  of  the  small  towns  and  even 


514  GREEK  LIFE   AT  HOME. 

the  country  people  often  went  to  the  capital  to  satisfy 
their  wants,  especially  to  the  great  markets  held 
on  fixed  days  of  the  month,  usually  on  the  first ;  the 
national  festivals  too  provided  opportunities  for  many 
kinds  of  purchases,  since  a  sort  of  fair  was  usually 
connected  with  them. 

In  the  market-places  of  large  towns  there  were 
usually  covered  arcades  in  which  the  merchants  and 
dealers  set  up  their  wares;  hi  some  places  there 
were  market-halls  of  this  kind  for  special  goods, 
such  as  corn,  oil,  ointments,  etc.  Besides  these 
permanent  places  of  sale,  there  were  light  booths  of  a 
temporary  nature,  constructed  in  tent  fashion  of  woven 
reeds  and  linen.  The  life  in  the  market-place  prob- 
ably resembled  that  of  the  present  day  in  the  south  ; 
the  custom  of  calling  out  and  extolling  goods  existed 
in  ancient  Greece  as  well,  and  so  did  the  excessive 
demands  of  the  seller  and  the  depreciation  on  the 
part  of  the  purchaser,  and  even  the  notorious  rude- 
ness of  the  fish-wives  seems  to  have  been  known  to 
the  Greeks.  We  find  mention  also  of  peddling,  and 
carrying  wares  from  house  to  house,  and  this  was 
chiefly  the  case  with  provisions. 

Greek  art  supplies  very  few  pictures  from  the 
trader's  life.  Fig.  205,  taken  from  a  vase-painting, 
though  a  caricature,  has  an  especial  interest  on  account 
of  its  subject :  a  certain  king  Arcesilas  of  Cyrene 
(probably  mythical),  is  represented  as  a  dealer  hi 
silphium ;  it  is  well  known  that  the  silphium  plant, 
so  much  valued  by  ancient  epicures,  came  from 
Cyrene,  and  was  an  important  article  of  trade.  Under 
a  canopy,  the  curtains  of  which  are  suspended  by 
rings,  stands  a  large  pair  of  scales,  at  which  five  men 
are  weighing  goods,  some  of  which  are  heaped  up  on 
the  scales  anci  Others  lying  about  on  the  ground 


AGRICULTURE,   TRADE,   AND  HANDICRAFT.        515 

Most  of  the  goods  are  as  yet  unpacked;  these  work- 
men, however,  have  already  filled  large  woollen  sacks 
with  them,  and  one  of  them  is  in  the  act  of  tying  his 
up,  while  another  is  carrying  his  away.  The  weighing 


FIG.  205. 


and  packing  are  conducted  under  the  superintendence 
of  king  Arcesilas,  who  is  seated  close  by,  holding 
in  his  left  hand  his  sceptre,  and  with  his  right  ap- 
parently giving  directions  to  a  workman  standing 
before  him.  His  costume  is  very  extraordinary.  The 
panther  under  the  prince's  seat,  a  lizard,  a  stork  (or 


516  GREEK  LIFE  AT  HOME. 

crane),  a  monkey,  and  several  pigeons,  give  life  to  the 
picture,  and  partly  indicate  the  place  where  the  scene 
is  laid.  Below  the  main  picture,  where  we  must  sup- 
pose the  cellar  for  the  stores  to  be,  workmen  are 
piling  up  finished  packets,  under  the  direction  of  a 
man  in  a  cloak. 

Occupations  connected  with  money  were  largely 
developed  in  antiquity.  The  merchants  who  dealt 
with  such  business — the  bankers  and  money-changers 
— were  called  by  the  Greeks  "  table-merchants " 
(rpaTre&Tai),  from  the  table  at  which  they  originally 
carried  on  their  occupations.  Their  duties  were  of  a 
double  nature ;  besides  the  actual  business  of  chang- 
ing, they  undertook  the  investment  of  capital  and 
the  transaction  of  money  business.  When  -the  in- 
creased coinage  of  money  and  the  augmentation  of 
trade  and  travel  brought  large  sums  into  the  hands  of 
individuals,  those  who  had  not  invested  their  possess- 
ions in  wares  or  property  or  slaves,  naturally  desired 
to  profit  by  it  in  some  other  way,  and  thus  the  loan 
business  was  gradually  developed,  in  which  capitalists 
lent  money  to  those  who  required  it  for  any  Tnercan- 
tile  undertaking,  in  return  for  a  security  and  interest. 
In  the  bond  executed  in  the  presence  of  witnesses,  the 
amount  of  the  capital,  the  interest  agreed  upon,  as 
well  as  the  time  for  which  the  loan  was  arranged,  had 
to  be  entered.  For  greater  safety,  a  third  person 
usually  became  security  for  the  debtor,  or  else  some 
possession  was  mortgaged,  the  value  of  which  corre- 
sponded to  the  sum  lent.  They  distinguished  between 
pledges  in  movable  objects,  such  as  cattle,  furniture, 
slaves,  etc. ;  and  mortgages  given  partly  on  movable 
objects,  such  as  factory  slaves,  and  partly  on  immovable 
property.  Mortgages  of  this  kind  were  very  common 
in  seafaring  business.  The  merchant  who  borrowed 


AGRICULTURE,  TRADE,   AND   HANDICRAFT        517 

money  from  a  rich  citizen  in  order  to  carry  on  a  par- 
ticular business  with,  it,  pledged  his  ship  or  the  goods 
with  which  he  dealt,  or  perhaps  both,  to  his  creditor 
in  a  formal  contract.  They  endeavoured  to  obtain  as 
much  security  as  possible  by  very  .exact  arrangements 
concerning  the  object  of  the  journey,  the  nature  of  the 
goods,  etc. ;  moreover,  the  interest  in  business  of  this 
kind  was  very  high,  because  the  creditor  ran  the  risk 
of  losing  his  bargain  entirely,  or  in  part,  by  storms,  or 
pirates,  or  other  misfortunes.  Mortgages  were  also 
given  on  property  in  land,  and  the  creditor's  right  of 
ownership  was  inscribed  on  stone  tablets  set  up  on  the 
property  hi  question,  with  the  name  of  the  creditor 
and  the  amount  of  the  debt.  In  some  places  the 
State  itself  conducted  books  for  mortgages,  in  which 
all  the  property  was  entered,  together  with  the 
amount  of  the  mortgages  upon  it.  Here,  as  in  other 
loans,  interest  was  high,  and  this  was  due  to  the  in- 
security of  trade  and  the  vory  incomplete  develop- 
ment of  agricultural  conditions.  There  were  no  laws 
against  usury ;  from  ten  to  twenty  per  cent.,  or  higher 
if  it  was  for  risk  at  sea,  was  common,  but  there  were 
even  cases  where  thirty-six  or  forty-eight  per  cent, 
were  taken.  Of  course,  in  these  circumstances  com- 
plaints of  extortion  were  made. 

The  arrangement  of  this  money  business  was 
chiefly  in  the  hands  of  the  bankers.  Their  original 
and  chief  occupation  was  the  changing  of  money — 
the  various  .kinds  of  coinage  which  became  current 
through  foreign  trade ;  and  here  they  got  their  profit 
from  the  rate  of  exchange.  They  also  lent  money, 
both  small  sums  and  capital  for  trade  and  other  business 
undertakings,  and  this  was  their  share  in  these  mone- 
tary transactions.  Rich  people  often  invested  their 
money  with  these  bankers,  who  paid  them  interest 


518  GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 

and  gave  them  security  or  pledges ;  they  then  them- 
selves lent  the  money  to  men  of  business,  and  on 
account  of  the  risk  naturally  demanded  higher  interest 
than  they  paid.  But  even  when  money  was  lent 
direct  by  a  capitalist  to  a  merchant,  the  mediation 
of  a  banker  was  often  resorted  to  in  concluding 
the  contract;  for  these  men  were  well  known  to 
the  public  on  account  of  their  extensive  business, 
and  possessed  considerable  business  knowledge.  As  a 
rule,  though  some  were  known  as  usurers,  and  trickery 
and  bankruptcy  occasionally  occurred,  they  enjoyed 
so  much  confidence  that  they  were  gladly  engaged  as 
witnesses  in  business  contracts,  and  requested  to  take 
charge  of  the  documents.  Money  also  was  deposited 
with  them,  for  which  no  particular  use  appeared  at 
the  moment,  and  which  would  not  be  safe  if  kept  at 
home;  of  course,  if  this  capital  lay  idle  the  banker 
could  pay  no  interest,  but  often  demanded  a  sum  for 
taking  charge  of  the  deposit.  Some  of  them  left  their 
money  in  the  hands  of  money-changers  to  increase 
the  business  capital,  and  the  extent  to  which  this  was 
done  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  the  banker  Pasion,  at 
the  time  of  Demosthenes,  in  a  business  capital  of  50 
talents  (£11,700),  had  11  talents  (£2,593)  lent  by 
private  persons. 


CHAPTER    XV, 

SLAVERY. 

Slaves  in  Ancient  Greece — Captives  Taken  in  "War — The  Slave 
Trade— The  Price  of  Slaves— Native  Serfs— The  Helots— The 
Penestae  and  the  Clarotae— The  Status  of  the  Slave— Protection 
against  Ill-treatment — The  Slave's  Duties — Modes  of  Liberation. 

ALL  the  social  and  economic  conditions  of  antiquity 
are  based  on  the  institution  of  slavery,  and  without  it 
would  have  been  impossible ;  in  fact,  slavery  is  so 
closely  interwoven  with  the  whole  life  of  antiquity 
that  even  the  political  development  of  the  ancient 
nations  and  their  achievements  in  the  domain  of  art  and 
industry  would  be  inexplicable  without  the  existence 
of  a  large  slave  population.  So  great  was  the  import- 
ance of  slavery  in  antiquity  that  any  account  of  Greek 
life  would  be  incomplete,  which  did  not  give  some 
slight  sketch  of  these  peculiar  conditions. 

The  institution  of  slavery  in  Greece  is  very  ancient; 
it  is  impossible  to  trace  its  origin,  and  we  find  it  even 
in  the  very  earliest  times  regarded  as  a  necessity  of 
nature,  a  point  of  view  which  even  the  following  ages 
and  the  most  enlightened  philosophers  adopted.  In 
later  times  voices  were  heard  from  time  to  time  pro- 
testing against  the  necessity  of  the  institution,  showing 
some  slight  conception  of  the  idea  of  human  rights, 
but  these  were  only  isolated  opinions.  From  the  very 
earliest  times  the  right  of  the  strongest  had  estab- 
lished the  custom  that  captives  taken  hi  war,  if 
not  killed  or  ransomed,  became  the  slaves  of  the 


520  GREEK   LIFE  AT  HOME. 

conquerors,  or  were  sold  into  slavery  by  them.  This 
custom,  which  was  universal  in  the  Homeric  age, 
continued  to  exist  in  the  historic  period  also,  so  that 
not  only  was  it  adopted  in  contests  between  Hellenes 
and  barbarians,  but  even  in  the  numerous  feuds 
between  Hellenes  and  Hellenes  they  often  condemned 
their  own  countrymen  to  the  hard  lot  of  slavery ,  in 
later  times,  however,  it  was  only  in  cases  of  special 
animosity  that  they  resorted  to  this  expedient ;  as  a 
rule,  they  exchanged  or  ransomed  captive  Greeks. 
Besides  the  wars,  piracy,  originally  regarded  as  by  no 
means  dishonourable,  supplied  the  slave  markets  ; 
and  though  in  later  times  endeavours  were  made  to 
set  a  limit  to  it,  yet  the  trade  in  human  beings  never 
ceased,  since  the  need  for  slaves  was  considerable,  not 
only  in  Greece,  but  still  more  in  Oriental  countries. 

In  the  historic  period  the  slaves  in  Greece  were 
for  the  most  part  barbarians,  chiefly  from  the  districts 
north  of  the  Balkan  peninsula  and  Asia  Minor.  The 
Greek  dealers  supplied  themselves  from  the  great 
slave  markets  held  in  the  towns  on  the  Black  Sea 
and  on  the  Asiatic  coast  of  the  Archipelago,  not 
only  by  the  barbarians  themselves,  but  even  by  Greeks, 
in  particular  the  Chians,  who  carried  on  a  considerable 
slave  trade.  These  slaves  were  then  put  up  for  sale 
at  home ;  at  Athens  there  were  special  markets  held 
for  this  purpose  on  the  first  of  every  month ;  the 
slaves  were  arranged  on  platforms,  so  that  the  buyers 
might  examine  them  on  all  sides,  for  they  sought 
chiefly  to  obtain  physical  perfection  and  strength  of 
limb  for  hard  work,  and  therefore,  if  the  purchasers 
desired  it,  the  slaves  had  to  be  undressed.  Of  course, 
those  slaves  who  were  bought  merely  for  the  sake 
of  their  bodily  strength  were  least  valuable  ;  a  higher 
price  was  given  for  those  who  had  any  special  skill  or 


SLAVERY.  521 

were  suited  for  posts  of  confidence,  and  considerable 
prices  were  also  given  for  pretty  female  slaves  or 
handsome  boys.  Consequently,  there  was  great  variety 
of  price ;  at  the  time  of  Xenophon  the  price  foi  a 
common  male  slave,  who  was  only  suited  for  rough 
work,  was  half  a  mina  (about  .£2),  else  the  ordinary 
average  was  two  minae  (about  £8) ;  for  slaves  who 
possessed  any  technical  skill  or  higher  education  the 
price  rose  from  five  to  ten  minae  (£20-£40),  and  even 
in  exceptional  cases  amounted  to  one  talent  (£240). 

A  large  portion  of  the  slave  population  consisted 
of  those  who  were  born  in  slavery ;  that  is,  the  chil- 
dren of  slaves  or  of  a  free  father  and  slave  mother, 
who  as  a  rule  also  became  slaves,  unless  the  owner 
disposed  otherwise.  We  have  no  means  of  knowing 
whether  the  number  of  these  slave  children  born 
in  the  houses  in  Greece  was  large  or  small  At  Rome 
they  formed  a  large  proportion  of  the  slave  popula- 
tion, but  the  circumstances  in  Italy  differed  greatly 
from  those  in  Greece,  and  the  Roman  landowners 
took  as  much  thought  for  the  increase  of  their  slaves 
as  of  their  cattle.  Besides  these  two  classes  of  slave 
population,  those  who  were  taken  in  war  or  by  piracy 
and  those  who  were  born  slaves,  there  was  also  a  third, 
though  not  important,  class.  In  early  times  even  free 
men  might  become  slaves  by  legal  methods  ;  for 
instance  foreign  residents,  if  they  neglected  their 
legal  obligations,  and  even  Greeks,  if  .they  were  insol- 
vent, might  be  sold  to  slavery  by  their  creditors,  a 
severe  measure  which  was  forbidden  by  Solon's  legis- 
lation at  Athens,  but  still  prevailed  hi  other  Greek 
states.  Children,  when  exposed,  became  the  property 
of  those  who  found  and  educated  them,  and  in  this 
manner  many  of  the  hetaerae  and  flute  girls  had 
become  the  property  of  their  owners. 
a* 


522  GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 

Finally,  we  know  that  in  some  countries  the 
Hellenic  population  originally  resident  there  were 
subdued  by  foreign  tribes,  and  became  the  slaves  of 
their  conquerors,  and  their  position  differed  in  but 
few  respects  from  that  of  the  barbarian  slaves  pur- 
chased in  the  markets.  Such  native  serfs  were  the 
Helots  at  Sparta,  the  Penestae  in  Thessaly,  the  Clarotae 
in  Crete,  etc.  We  have  most  information  about  the 
position  and  treatment  of  the  Helots ;  but  here  we 
must  receive  the  statements  of  writers  with  great 
caution,  since  they  undoubtedly  exaggerated  a  good 
deal  in  their  accounts  of  the  cruelty  with  which  the 
Spartans  treated  the  Helots.  Still,  it  is  certain  that 
in  many  respects  their  lot  was  a  sad  one.  The  con- 
stant fear  of  general  insurrection  on  the  part  of  the 
Helots  entertained  by  the  Spartans,  whose  own 
numbers  were  far  fewer,  and  the  terrible  severity 
with  which  they  punished,  not  only  real  insurrection, 
but  even  merely  suspected  revolution,  prove  to  us 
that  the  statements  concerning  the  cruel  treatment 
of  the  Helots  are  not  absolutely  without  foundation. 
But,  as  a  rule,  they  did  not  perform  menial  slave 
offices  in  the  houses  of  the  free  citizens,  but  cultivated 
their  lands,  and  as  they  were  only  obliged  to  hand 
over  a  certain  part  of  the  profit  to  the  owners,  they 
were  able  to  keep  the  remainder  for  themselves,  and 
sometimes  to  accumulate  fortunes  and  even  to  pur- 
chase their  freedom.  Nor  do  we  hear  of  cases  in 
which  individual  Spartans  treated  the  Helots  who 
were  subordinate  to  them  with  especial  severity — 
most  of  the  cases  of  cruelty  towards  Helots  are  those 
in  which  State  reasons  seemed  to  require  such  pro- 
ceedings, and  were  aimed,  not  at  individuals,  but  at 
the  whole  mass  of  slaves.  This  was  due  to  a  curious 
arrangement  by  which  the  Helots  were  not,  like  other 


SLAVERY.  523 

slaves,  private  property  of  the  individual  citizens,  but 
State  property  and  assigned  to  a  particular  piece  of 
land,  and  along  with  it  to  the  owner  for  the  time 
being,  without  enabling  him  to  maintain  right  of 
ownership  over  them.  We  must  not  therefore  regard 
the  Helots  in  the  same  light  as  ordinary  slaves ;  they 
were  rather  public  serfs,  and  on  this  account  they 
were  better  off  than  those'  who  belonged  to 
individual  owners.  There  seems  no  doubt  that  besides 
the  Helots  there  were  also  private  slaves  at  Sparta, 
who  rendered  personal  services  in  the  households. 

The  position  and  treatment  of  the  slaves  varied  in 
different  periods,  and  differed  also  in  the  different 
parts  of  Greece.  Here,  to^  the  conditions  of  the 
heroic  age  were  patriarchal,  and  the  distinction 
between  free  men  and  slaves  was  not  so  great  as  after- 
wards. Trustworthy  slaves  superintended  extensive 
farms  and  numerous  herds ;  old  female  slaves  had  the 
whole  direction  of  the  household;  they  were  often 
intimately  connected  with  the  inmates  of  the  house, 
and  showed  touching  fidelity  and  affection  for  their 
masters,  with  whom  they  lived  on  a  familiar  footing. 
Similar  conditions  existed  in  later  times  too,  but  only 
in  remote  pasture  districts,  such  as  Arcadia,  where 
even  in  the  historic  age  the  slaves  were  almost 
regarded  as  members  of  the  family,  ate  at  the  same 
table  as  their  masters,  and  shared  their  labours  and 
recreations.  Generally  speaking,  the  Dorians  were 
regarded  as  stern  masters,  and  the  Athenians  as 
kinder  and  more  considerate ;  in  fact,  a  common 
reproach  against  the  Athenians  was  that  their  kind- 
ness degenerated  into  weakness,  and  that  the  slaves 
were  nowhere  so  insolent  as  at  Athens ;  they  expressed 
themselves  freely,  it  was  said,  did  not  give  way  even 
to  free  citizens  in  the  street,  they  drank,  they  met 


524  GREEK    LIFE   AT   HOME. 

together  for  common  banquets,  carried  on  love  affairs, 
etc..  just  like  free  men.  These  reproaches  seem  not 
to  have  been  altogether  exaggerated,  as  is  proved  by 
the  important  part  played  by  slaves  in  the  newer 
Attic  comedy ;  they  were  usually  insolent,  cunning 
fellows,  who  cared  little  for  an  occasional  beating,  and 
were  always  ready  to  play  their  masters  a  trick,  or  to 
intrigue  with  the  sons  against  their  stern  fathers. 
Still  it  was  not  unusual  in  Attica  for  slaves  to  run 
away,  and  therefore  the  slave-owners  tried  to  prevent 
this  by  stern  supervision,  and  even  by  chaining  and 
branding.  It  is  natural  that  the  temperament  of 
the  Athenians,  which  changed  quickly  from  extreme 
to  extreme,  should  not  often  succeed  in  finding  the 
right  mean  between  seventy  and  kindness,  and 
therefore,  in  their  sudden  transitions  from  excessive 
consideration  to  severest  cruelty,  a  real  feeling  of 
attachment  between  slaves  and  masters  was  very 
rare ;  still  there  were  instances  of  devoted  fidelity 
on  the  part  of  the  slaves,  and  many  inscriptions  still 
extant  speak  of  such  devotion  continuing  even  to 
the  grave. 

The  rights  assigned  by  law  to  the  master  over  his 
slaves  were  very  considerable.  He  might  throw  them 
in  chains,  put  them  in  the  stocks,  condemn  them  to 
the  hardest  labour — for  instance,  in  the  mills — leave 
them  without  food,  brand  them,  punish  them  with 
stripes,  and  attain  the  utmost  limit  of  endurance ;  but, 
at  any  rate  at  Athens,  he  was  forbidden  to  kill  them. 
These  severe  punishments  were  generally  reserved  for 
special  cases  of  obstinacy,  theft,  or  such  like ;  as  a 
rule,  the  slaves  were  treated  much  as  our  servants  are. 
Their  masters  gave  them  the  ordinary  dress  of  arti- 
sans and  workmen — the  exomis,  or  short  garment 
.with  sleeves  (compare  the  terra-cotta  figure,  No.  206); 


SLAVERY. 


525 


their  food  was  simple  but  nutritious,  chieHy  barley 
porridge  and  pulse,  sometimes  meat;  iheir  drink 
was  the  cheap  wine  of  the  country ;  they  had  their 
own  sleeping  apartments,  usually  those  of  the  male 
slaves  were  separated  from  those  of  the  female,  except 
when  the  master  allowed  a 
slave  to  found  a  family  and  to 
live  with  one  of  his  fellow- 
slaves.  Legal  marriages  be- 
tween slaves  were  not  possible, 
since  they  possessed  no  personal 
rights ;  the  owner  could  at  any 
moment  separate  a  slave  family 
again,  and  sell  feparate  mem- 
bers of  it.  On  the  other  hand, 
if  the  slaves  were  in  a  position 
to  earn  money,  they  could  ac- 
quire fortunes  of  their  own ; 
they  then  worked  on  their  own 
account,  and  only  paid  a  certain 
proportion  to  their  owners, 
keeping  the  rest  for  themselves, 
and  when  they  had  saved  the 
necessary  amount  they  could 
purchase  their  freedom,  suppos- 
ing the  owner  was  willing  to 
agree,  for  he  was  not  compelled. 

Generally  speaking,  the  position  of  the  public  slaves 
was  even  more  favourable.  There  were  certain  occu- 
pations which  free  men  were  unwilling  to  undertake, 
and  for  this  purpose  the  State  used  slaves;  thus, 
for  instance,  at  Athens  the  executioner,  torturers, 
gaolers,  and  police  were  all  slaves ;  they  had  their  own 
dwellings  assigned  them  by  the  State,  could  possess 
property,  and  received  a  small  salary  from  the  State 


FIG.  206. 


526  GREEK   LIFE   AT   HOME. 

out  of  which  they  had  to  feed  and  clothe  themselves ; 
they  could  also  earn  money  by  other  kinds  of  work, 
and  sometimes  attained  a  position  of  fortune.  Some 
of  them,  as  for  instance  the  Athenian  police,  held  a 
position  which  gave  them  certain  rights  over  the 
citizens,  and,  therefore,  the  position  of  these  public 
slaves  must  have  been  a  very  independent  one,  while 
the  numerous  temple  slaves  also  felt  the  hardness  oi 
their  position  much  less  than  those  whose  owners 
were  private  persons. 

The  protection  given  to  slaves  by  the  State  waa 
very  small,  but  here  again  there  were  differences  hi 
different  states.  It  was  only  in  cases  of  the  utmost 
emergency  that  the  State  interfered  between  master 
and  slave.  In  the  oldest  period  the  owner  had 
power  of  life  and  death  over  his  slave,  but  later  legis- 
lation put  an  end  to  this,  and  at  Athens,  in  particular, 
the  master  might  not  even  kill  a  slave  if  he  found 
him  committing  a  crime,  the  penalty  of  which  was 
death ;  cases  of  necessary  defence,  or  such  where  the 
crime  could  only  be  prevented  by  killing  the  per- 
petrator, were,  of  course,  excluded.  If  any  owner  had 
killed  his  slave  without  being  able  to  justify  himself, 
he  was  punished  for  so  doing,  not  as  severely  as 
though  he  had  murdered  a  free  man,  but  only  as  if 
it  were  a  case  of  manslaughter.  Further  protection 
against  excessive  ill-treatment  from  their  masters 
was  given  by  the  right  of  sanctuary,  which  per- 
mitted the  slave  to  take  refuge  at  the  altar  of  some 
god,  where  he  found,  at  any  rate,  protection  for  the 
time  being ;  they  might  even,  supposing  they  were 
too  cruelly  used  by  their  masters,  ask  to  be  sold  to 
another  master,  and  it  even  appears  as  if  the  owner 
could  be  legally  compelled  to  grant  this  request.  In 
other  respects  the  State  took  little  notice  of  slaves, 


SLAVERY.  527 

except  to  forbid  certain  things,  such  as  gymnastic 
exercises,  love-making  with  free  citizens,  participation 
in  certain  festivals  and  sacrifices.  Very  curious  and 
characteristic  of  the  view  they  held  of  slaves,  were  the 
arrangements  when  a  slave  had  to  give  evidence  in  a 
court  of  law.  So  bad  was  their  opinion  of  the  moral 
character  of  barbarians,  and  especially  of  those  who 
were  not  free,  that  they  thought  the  slaves  could  only 
be  induced  to  speak  the  truth  by  direct  physical  com- 
pulsion, and  consequently  they  were  always  questioned 
under  torture.  If  in  a  suit  one  party  required  the 
testimony  of  his  opponent's  slave,  the  latter  could  re- 
fuse it,  but  he  did  so  at  the  risk  of  losing  the  suit 
Sometimes  a  master  voluntarily  offered  his  slave  as 
witness.  If  the  torture,  of  which  there  were  various 
grades,  some  of  them  very  severe,  inflicted  any  lasting 
injury  on  his  body  or  health,  the  owner  might  demand 
compensation,  supposing  that  he  was  not  the  loser  in 
the  case. 

The  mode  in  which  slaves  were  used  varied  a  good 
deal,  according  as  an  owner  required  his  slaves  for  his 
own  personal  service  vr  household,  or  used  them  for 
work  in  the  field  or  at  some  trade,  or  sent  them  out 
to  work  for  others.  Among  those  in  the  personal 
service  of  their  master  were  all  who  were  occupied 
with  the  duties  of  the  household  and  service  and 
attendance  on  their  master  and  his  family.  Their 
number  was,  of  course,  regulated  by  the  size  of  the 
household ;  a  poor  family  had  often  to  content  itself 
with  a  single  slave,  but  very  few  were  so  poor  as  not 
to  have  any ;  hi  large  houses  a  whole  army  of  slaves 
was  kept,  who  all  had  their  special  duties,  though 
often  very  slight  ones.  There  were  the  door-keeper, 
the  slaves  who  attended  their  master  or  his  family  in 
the  street,  the  paidagogos,  the  lady's  maid,  the  cook, 


528  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

the  coachman,  the  stable  boys,  water  carriers,  wool 
workers,  etc.  This  whole  army  of  servants  was  usually 
under  the  direct  supervision  of  a  superintendent  or 
steward,  himself  a  slave,  but  a  particularly  trust 
worthy  one,  who  was  often  trusted  so  much  by  his 
master  as  to  have  charge  of  his  keys  and  his  signet 
ring.  The  office  of  these  stewards  was  of  particular 
importance  on  the  country  estates,  where  they 
had  all  the  slaves  required  for  farming  purposes 
immediately  under  them,  and  had  to  assign  them 
occupations  and  superintend  their  work,  unless  the 
master  undertook  this  or  himself  took  up  his  dwelling 
on  the  estate.  Slaves  who  could  fill  such  posts  of 
confidence  would,  of  course,  fetch  a  very  high  price, 
and  their  position  can  in  no  way  be  compared  with 
that  of  ordinary  slaves.  The  same  may  be  said  of 
those  who  possessed  some  intellectual  culture,  and 
could  serve  their  masters  as  secretaries  or  readers,  or 
even  help  them  in  scientific  labours,  by  making  ex- 
tracts, etc. ;  but  this  was  far  rarer  among  the  barbar- 
ian slaves  of  the  Greeks  than  among  the  Greek  slaves 
of  the  Romans.  The  slaves  could  also  render  their 
masters  important  assistance  by  technical  skill ;  thus, 
in  a  rich  household,  there  would  be,  besides  the  cook, 
a  special  baker  for  bread  and  cakes,  also  weavers, 
fullers,  embroiderers,  whose  duty  it  was  to  provide  the 
clothing.  And  as  the  slaves  in  the  country  had  to 
work  in  field  and  meadow,  to  attend  the  vineyards, 
and  olive  gardens,  to  guard  and  attend  the  cattle  so 
the  artisan  set  his  slaves  to  work  in  his  workshop,  and 
either  instructed  them  himself  in  his  art  or  bought 
such  as  were  already  trained  for  the  purpose.  Even 
physicians  often  had  slave  assistants,  ind  some  of 
these  were  so  much  trusted  by  their  masters  that 
they  took  their  place  by  the  sick  bed. 


SLAVERY.  529 

It  was  very  common,  too,  for  people  who  were  not 
chemselves  artisans  to  own  a  number  of  slaves  who 
practised  some  particular  trade,  as  in  a  factory. 
A.mong  the  ancients  slaves  took  the  place  of 
machinery,  for  they  were  tolerably  cheap  to  buy  and 
maintain,  and  thus  a  factory  of  this  kind,  worked  by 
slaves,  was  a  good  investment  for  capital,  especially  if 
the  owner  understood  enough  business  to  undertake 
the  direction  himself,  or  if  he  had  a  good  overseer. 
These  factory  owners  also  escaped  the  prejudices 
against  artisans ;  to  own  slaves  who  made  money  by 
the  work  of  their  hands  was  not  regarded  as  "  mechani- 
cal "  so  long  as  they  kept  their  own  hands  from 
the  work.  Thus  the  father  of  Demosthenes  possessed 
a  knife  factory,  that  of  Isocrates  a  flute  factory, 
Lysias  and  his  brother  owned  a  shield  factory  of  one 
hundred  and  twenty  workers.  The  slaves  who  worked 
in  these  were  not  all  necessarily  the  property  of 
the  owner.  Very  often  a  slave  proprietor  who  did 
not  understand  a  business  himself,  let  his  house  to 
someone  who  carried  it  on  at  his  own  risk;  or,  sup- 
posing a  master  to  possess  among  his  slaves  one  who 
understood  some  particular  trade,  he  let  him  out 
for  a  certain  time  at  a  fee  (which  was  paid  not  to 
the  slave,  but  to  the  master)  to  someone  who  could 
make  use  of  him,  perhaps  in  a  large  factory.  In  this 
way  slaves  were  often  let  out  for  work  in '  the  mines, 
which  required  a  great  many  hands;  in  fact,  they 
might  be  let  out  for  a  long  or  short  period,  even  for 
days  and  half-days,  for  work  in  the  fields,  domestic 
occupations,  personal  service,  etc.  Many  of  the  flute 
girls  and  hetaerae  were  slaves,  and  were  hired  out 
by  their  owners  by  the  hour,  day,  or  month,  an 
arrangement  with  which  we  are  familiar  from  ancient 
comedy. 


530  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

Moreover,  it  sometimes  happened  that  slaves  who 
had  learned  some  profession  made  an  agreement' with 
their  masters  to  pay  them  a  certain  proportion  ol 
their  earnings,  and  keep  the  rest  for  themselves ; 
sometimes  these  lived  in  their  own  houses  and  paid 
for  their  own  food,  and  might  easily  earn  enough 
to  purchase  their  freedom. 

There  were  various  ways  of  liberating  slaves,  and 
the  proceedings  were  different  in  different  states ;  it 
was  a  matter  of  some  importance  too,  whether  a 
slave  was  private  property  or  owned  by  the  State  or 
by  some  sanctuary.  There  was  no  definite  legal 
formula  for  the  manumission  of  private  slaves  as  at 
Rome ;  the  State  did  not  interfere  in  the  matter,  but 
only  demanded  a  certain  tax  from  the  liberated  slave. 
As  a  rule,  the  act  of  manumission  was  performed 
before  witnesses  or  publicly  in  some  large  assembly, 
at  the  Theatre,  in  courts  of  law,  etc.,  in  order  to  give 
the  freed  man  a  guarantee  of  its ,  validity.  It  often 
happened  that  an  owner  gave  all  or  some  of  his  slaves 
their  freedom  in  his  will,  either  immediately  upon  his 
death  or  on  the  condition  that  the  slave  should  serve 
his  heirs  for  a  certain  period,  or  pay  a  certain  sum  to 
them  out  ot  his  own  earnings  in  return  for  his  free- 
dom. If  a  slave  purchased  his  freedom  during  the 
lifetime  of  his  master  there  was  a  curious  arrangement 
for  establishing  the  legality  of  the  proceeding,  since 
a  slave  was  not  able  to  conclude  a  legally  valid 
contract.  We  owe  our  knowledge  of  this  proceeding 
chiefly  to  documents  at  Delphi.  A  mock  sale  had  to 
be  carried  on ;  the  master  sold  the  slave  for  a  sum 
mentioned  in  the  contract  (which  was  paid  by  the 
slave  himself,  unless  it  was  remitted  by  the  master) 
to  some  god,  e.g.  at  Delphi  to  Apollo,  under  the  con- 
dition that  he  should  be  free  as  soon  as  he  entered 


STJLVERT.  531 

the  possession  of  the  god.  The  slave  did  not  then 
become  a  temple  slave,  but  was  set  free  by  the  god, 
probably  in  return  for  some  small  payment  to  the 
sanctuary.  As  these  contracts  were  concluded  hi  the 
presence  of  witnesses,  usually  priests  of  the  divinity 
in  question,  and  deposited  hi  the  sanctuary,  the  freed 
slave  had  the  security  of  not  being  afterwards  claimed 
by  his  former  master  or  his  heirs,  and  again  losing 
his  freedom.  Sometimes  these  contracts  contained 
clauses  which  pledged  the  slave  to  certain  obligations 
towards  his  master  as  long  as  he  lived,  or  towards 
his  heirs,  or  to  care  for  the  burial  and  grave  of  his 
former  master,  etc.  In  most  cases  the  freed  slave 
did  not  immediately  lose  all  connection  with  his 
old  master;  he  was  not  a  citizen,  and  therefore  his 
former  owner  became  his  legal  patron.  It  was  not 
unusual  for  the  contract  to  specify  that  in  case  the 
slave  should  die  without  children,  his  property  should 
belong  to  his  former  master  cr  his  heirs,  and  some- 
times this  even  extended  to  the  children  of  the  slave, 
supposing  they  hi  turn  died  without  legal  heirs.  It 
may  have  often  happened,  as  was  also  the  case  among 
some  of  the  Russian  serfs  in  our  own  time,  that 
the  freed  slave  was  richer  than  his  master,  and  we 
may  thus  explain  such  obligations  as  those  already 
mentioned,  or  the  condition  that  the  liberated  slave 
should  maintain  his  master  until  his  death.  The  right 
of  citizenship  was  seldom  conferred  on  slaves  when 
they  were  set  free ;  supposing  this  was  the  case,  of 
course,  all  such  obligations  were  omitted.  This  was 
usually  done  when  a  slave  had  deserved  especially 
well  of  his  country ;  thus,  for  instance,  all  those  who 
fought  at  the  battle  of  Arginusae  received  their  free- 
dom and  the  right  of  citizenship.  The  conditions  at 
Sparta  were  different ;  sometimes  the  Helots  received 


532  GREEK   LIFE   AT  HOME. 

their  freedom  from  the  State,  especially  those  children 
of  Helots  who  were  educated  and  brought  up  together 
with  the  sons  of  citizens,  but  the  right  of  citizenship 
was  never  combined  with  this  freedom.  Still,  it  was 
not  unusual  for  children  who  were  born  of  Spartan 
fathers  and  Helot  mothers  to  be  both  free  men  and 
citizens ;  the  celebrated  Spartan  generals  Lysander, 
Gylippus  and  Callicratidas,  were  sons  of  Spartans  and 
Helots. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  make  a  guess  at  the 
number  of  slaves  in  Greece.  Statements  on  the  sub- 
ject are  extant,  but  these  are  insufficient  to  give  us 
any  general  idea.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
number  was  a  very  large  one ;  it  was  a  sign  of  the 
greatest  poverty  to  own  no  slaves  at  all,  and  Aeschines 
mentions,  as  a  mark  of  a  very  modest  household,  that 
there  were  only  seven  slaves  to  six  persons.  If  we 
add  to  these  domestic  slaves  the  many  thousands 
working  in  the  country,  in  the  factories,  and  the 
mines,  and  those  who  were  the  property  of  the  State 
and  the  temples,  there  seems  no  doubt  that  their 
number  must  have  considerably  exceeded  that  of  the 
free  population.  The  injurious  influence  of  this  part 
of  the  population,  who  were  chiefly  barbarians,  was 
felt  in  many  different  ways ;  and  though  it  is  not 
as  evident  in  Greece  as  in  Rome,  where  the  disastrous 
results  of  slavery  are  most  marked,  yet  we  cannot 
hesitate  to  affirm  that  the  speedy  fall  of  Greece  frnra 
her  political  and  social  height,  and  the  sad  picture 
she  offered  under  Roman  dominion,  was  due,  among 
other  causes,  in  very  great  part  to  the  institution 
of  slavery. 


LIST    OF   AUTHORITIES    CONSULTED    FOR 
THIS   BOOK. 

I. — WORKS  BEARING  ON  THE  SUBJECT  GENERALLY. 

J.  A.  St.  John.    "  The  Hellenes."    London,  1844. 

J.  P.  Mahaffy.  "Social  Life  in  Greece  from  Homer  to 
Menander."  London,  1875. 

W.  A.  Becker.  "  Charikles  neu  bearbeitet  von  H.  Goell." 
Berlin,  1877. 

C.  F.  Hermann.  "  Griechische  Privataltertiimer,"  3rd  ed., 
edited  by  H.  Bliimner.  Freiburg  and  Tubingen,  1882. 

Panofka.     "  Bilder  antiken  Lebens."     Berlin,  1843. 

Panofka.     "  Griechen  und  Griechinnen."    Berlin,  1844. 

Weiszer.  "  Lebensbilder  aus  dem  Klassichen  Altertum." 
Stuttgart,  1862. 

A.  Baumeister.  "Denkmaler  des  Klassichen  Altertums." 
Munich,  1884. 

Th.  Schreiber.  "  Kulturhistorischer  Atlas  des  Altertums." 
Leipzig,  1885. 

H.  Bliimner.  "  Kunstgewerbe  im  Altertum."  Leipzig  and 
Prague. 

II. — WORKS  DEALING  WITH  SPECIAL  SUBJECTS. 

1.  Costume. 

W.  Helbig.  "  Das  homerische  Epos  aus  den  Denkmalern 
erlautert."  Leipzig,  1884,  pp.  115—180. 

J.  Boehlati.  "  Quaestiones  de  re  vestiaria  Graecorum." 
Weimar,  1884. 

Fr.  Studniczka.  "  Beitrage  zur  Geschichte  der  altgriech- 
ischen  Tracht."  Vienna,  ]  886. 

Th.  Schreiber.  "  Mitteilungen  des  f^utschen  archaeo- 
logischen  Instituts  in  Athen."  VoL  VIII.  (1883),  pp.  246  f. ; 
IX.  (1884),  pp.  232  f. 


534  LIST  OF  AUTHORITIES. 

2.  Birth  and  Early  Childhood. 

H.  v.  SwiecickL  "Die  Pflege  der  Kinder  bei  den 
Griechen."  Breslau,  1877. 

Becq  de  Fouquieres.    "  Les  jeux  des  anciens."   Paris,  1869. 

L.  Grasberger.  "  Erziehung  und  Unterricht  im  Klassischen 
Altertum."  Wurzburg,  1864-1881. 

3.  Education. 

L.  Grasberger.    (See  2.) 

J.  L.  Ussing.  "Erziehung  und  Jugendunterricht  bei  den 
Griechen  und  Romern."  Berlin,  1885. 

4.  Marriage  and  Women. 
No  special  books  quoted. 

5.  Daily  Life  within  and  without  the  House. 

G.  Bilfinger.  "Die  Zeitmesser  der  antiken  Volker." 
Stuttgart,  1886. 

6.  Meals  and  Social  Entertainments. 

Anastasios  Maltos.  A  modern  Greek  work  on  the 
symposia  of  the  Ancient  Greeks.  Athens,  1880. 

7.  Sickness  and  Physicians;  Death  and  Burial. 
Welcker.    "  Kleine  Schriften."    IIL,  pp.  1  f. 

8.  Gymnastics. 

L.  Grasberger.    (See  2.) 

J.  H.  Krause.  "  Die  Gymnastik  und  Agonistik  der  HeJ 
lenen."  2  vols.  Leipzig,  1841. 

Ed.  Finder.  "  Ueber  den  Fiinfkampf  der  Hellenen."  Berlin 
1867. 

H.  Marquardt.    "  Zum  Pentathlon  der  Hellenen."    1886. 

9.  Music  and  Dancing. 

K.  v.  Jan.  "Die  Griechischen  Saiteninstrumente.  Pro- 
gramm  des  Lyceums  von  Saargemund."  Leipzig,  1882. 

Gevaert.  "  Histoire  et  theorie  de  la  musique  dans  1'an- 
tiquite."  Vol.  II.  (1881),  pp.  241  f. 

K  v.  Jan.  An  article  in  "  Baumeister's  Denkmaler  des 
Klassischen  Altertums."  I.,  553  f. 

10.  Religion. 

K  F.  Hermann.  "Lehrbuch  der  gottesdienstlichen  Alter- 
turner  der  Griechen."  Second  edition.  Revised  by  K.  B.  Stark 
Heidelberg,  1858. 


LIST  OF  AUTHORITIES.  635 

Metzger.  An  article  entitled  Divinatio  in  Pauly's  "  Realen- 
cyklopadie."  II,  pp.  1113  f. 

Bouch^-Leclerque.  "  Histoire  de  la  divination  dans  Tan- 
tiquite."  Paris,  1880. 

Biichsenschutz.  "Traum  und  Traumdeutung  im  Altertum." 
Berlin,  1882. 

11.  Games  and  Festivals. 

J.  H.  Krause.  "  'E.\\^tKd."  Part  I.  Olympia.  Vienna, 
1838.  Part  IL,  Pythien,  Nemien,  und  Isthmien.  Leipzig, 
1841. 

E.  Curtius.    Olympia.    Berlin,  1852. 

Ad.    Bottiger.      Olympia.      "Das    Fest   und    seine    Statte." 
Second  Edition.     Berlin,  1886. 

Holwerda.  An  article  in  the  "  Archaeologische  Zeitung.'1 
for  1880,  pp.  169  f. 

A.  Mommsen.     "  Delphica."    Leipzig,  1878,  pp.  149—214. 

H  Guhrauer.  "  Der  Pythische  Nomos  "  in  "  Supplemente 
der  neuen  Jahrbiicher  fiir  Philologie  und  Padogogie." 
Vol.  VIII.,  pp.  309  f. 

A.  Mommsen.  "  Heortologie.  Antiquarische  Untersuch- 
ungen  iiber  die  stadtischen  Feste  der  Athener."  Leipzig,  1864. 

A.  Michaelis.     "  Der  Parthenon."    Leipzig,  1871. 

Preller.  An  article  in  Pauly's  "  Realencyklopadie.' 
Vol.  III.,  pp.  83  f. 

Preller.     "  Demeter  und  Persephone."    p.  342  f. 

12.  The  Theatre. 

Wieseler.  An  article  entitled  "  Griechisches  Theater,"  in 
Ersch.  Gruber's  "Encyklopadie."  First  series.  Vol.  LXXXIIL, 
pp.  243  f. 

Wieseler.  "  Theatergebaude  und  Denkmaler  des  Biihnen- 
wesens."  Gottingen,  1851. 

Alb.  Miiller.  "  Lehrbuchder  szenischen  Altertumer."  Frei- 
burg-im-Br.,  1886. 

W.  Donaldson.  "  Theatre  of  the  Greeks."  Ninth  edition, 
London,  1879. 

Liiders.    "Die  Dionysischen  Kiinstler."    Berlin,  1873. 

Sommerbrodt.    "Scaenica."    Berlin,  1876.    pp.  199  f. 

Arnold.  An  article  in  "  Verhandlungen  der  29ten  Philolo- 
gen  Versammlung,"  1875.  pp.  16  f. 

Wieseler.    "  Das  SatyrspieL"    Gottingen,  1848. 


536  LIST  OF  AUTHORITIES. 

O.  Benndorf.  "  Beitrage  zur  Kenntnis  des  Attischen 
Theaters,"  an  article  in  the  "Zeitschrift  fiir  osterreichischa 
Gymnasien."  1875. 

13.  War  and  Seafaring. 

W.  Riistow  and  H.  Kochly.  "Geschichte  des  Griechischen 
Kriegswesens."  Aarau,  1852. 

Helbig.  "Das  Homerische  Epos  aus  den  Denkmalern 
erlautert."  pp.  195—250. 

Jahns.  "Handbuch  einer  Geschichte  des  Kriegswesens 
von  der  Urzeit  bis  zur  Renaissance."  Leipzig,  1880. 

A.  Miiller.  An  article  in  Baumeister's  "  Denkmaler  des 
Klassischen  Altertums."  Vol.  I.,  pp.  525  f. 

Boeckh.  "Urkunden  iiber  das  Seewesen  des  Attischen 
Staates."  Berlin,  1840. 

Graser.    "De  veterum  re  navali."    Berlin,  1864. 

A.  Cartault.    "  La  triere  Athe"nienne."    Paris,  1880. 

A.  Breusing.     "  Die  Nautik  der  Alten."    Bremen,  1886. 

Raoul  Lemaitre.  "  Sur  la  disposition  des  rameurs  sur  la 
triere  antique,"  an  article  in  the  Revue  Archeologique  for 
1883.  pp.  89  f. 

14.  Agriculture,  Trade,  and  Commerce. 
Biichsenschutz.    "  Besitz  und  Erwerb."    Halle,  1869. 
Biichsenschiitz.     "  Die  Haupstatten  des  Gewerbfleiszes  im 

klassischen  Altertum."    Leipzig,  1869. 

W.  Druraann.  "  Die  Arbeiter  und  Kommunisten  in  Griech- 
enland  und  Rom."  Konigsberg,  1860. 

Bliinmer.  "Die  gewerbliche  Thatigkeit.  der  Volker  des 
klassischen  Altertums."  Leipzig,  1869. 

Bliimner.  "Technologic  und  Terminologie  der  Gewerbe 
und  Kiinste  bei  Griechen  und  Romern."  4  vols.  Leipzig, 
1875—1887. 

15.  Slaves. 

Wallon.  "  Histoire  de  1'esclavage  dans  1'antiquite."  Second 
edition.  Paris,  1879. 

Biichsenschutz.    "  Besitz  und  Gewerb."    pp.  104— 208. 


INDEX. 


Abanu,  The,  111 
Academy,  The,  at  Athens,  119,  127 
Acarnania,  Javelin  throwers  of,  478 

Alexandria  Troas,  Ruins  of  Wrestling 
School  at,  121 
Alexandrine  period,  Varieties  of  female 

"  Achaeans  Curly-haired,"  64,  72 

dress  in  the,  43 

Achilles,   Wail  at  the  death   of,   248  ; 
bandaging  the  arm   of   Patroclus, 

Altis,  Grove  of,  121,  304,  362,  365 
Amazons,  Chiton  of,  39  ;  Battle-axe  of, 

464 

475  ;  Shields  of,  478 

Acropolis,  Buildings  on  the,  179 

Ambrosia,  Festival  of,  385 

Actors,  Dross  of,  4,  46  ;  Gloves  of,  56  ; 

Amorgos,  Looms  of,  48 

sometimes  poets,  421  ;  selected  by 
poets,  and  examined  by  the  State, 

Ampechonion,  The,  43 
Amphiaraus,  Temple  of,  243  ;  Oracle  of, 

421  ;     Division   of  parts  to,  422  ; 

346;    Figure  of,  465;    Helmet  of, 

Dumb,    423  ;     Payment   of,    423  ; 

469 

Guilds  and  Schools  of,  423;   Cos- 

Amphictyons, The,  369 

tumes    and    masks    of,    422—444; 

Amphidromia,  The,  82,  83,  84 

Prizes  of,  449 

Amphoras,  373 

Ad-mis,  Festival  of,  152 

Amulets  for  infants,  83,  84  ;  in  curing 

Aeschines,  Figure  of,  2  ;   his  employ- 

disease, 243 

ment  in  boyhood.  104  ;  his  allusion 

Anacreon  on  Conversation,  219 

to  slaves,  532 

Anaximander    introduces    methods    ot 

Aeschylus,  The  Trilosv  of,  411  ;  his  in-              measuring  time,  184 

troduction  of  a  second  actor,  412  ;        Anaximenes  lecturing  at  Olympia.  364 

Songs   and   Chorus    of,   413  ;    his 
"Eumenides,"    428  ;    his   contest 
with  Sophocles,  449 

Andromache,  Head-dress  of,  74,  145 
Andromeda,  Masks  relating  to,  430 
Animals,  Sacrifice  of,  137,  138,  203,  336, 

Aesculapius,  234  ;  Sanctuaries  of,  238  ; 

337 

Sacrificial  offering  of  cocks  to,  336 
Aesop's  Fables,  88 
Aetion  exhibits  his  picture  at  Olympia 
of  Alexander's  Marriage,  364 

Animals,  wild,  Hunting,  196 
Anthesterian  Festival,  The,  385 
Antioch,  School  of,  128 
Antiphon  on  spear-throwing,  278 

Aetolia,  Javelin-throwers  of,  478 

Antisthenes,  127 

Agesilaus,   Dress  of,  50  ;    Anecdote  of, 
and  the  hobby-horse,  93 

Aphrodite  Anadyomene,  172 
Aphrodite  bathing,  159 

Agora,  The,  128 

Aphrodite  Pandemos,  134 

Agrae,  The  lesser  Eleusinia  at,  878 

Aphrodite  Urania,  134,  151 

Agricultural  implements,  493 
Agricultural  pursuits,  176 

Apollo,  Figure  of,  4  ;   The  chlamvs  of, 
19  ;  Head-dress  of,  66  ;  invoked  at 

Agriculture,   in  statistical  relation  to 

weddings,  137,  144  ;  at  the  purifi- 

industry and  trade,  489  ;  the  chief 

cation  of  Orestes,  330;  Sacrifice  of 

occupation  in    the  heroic  period, 

asses  to,  336  ;  Oracles  of,  342  ;  Clariau 

491  ;   at  Sparta,  491  ;   at  Athens, 

Temple  of,  344  ;  Sacrifice  at  Pythian 

491  ;  Irrigation  in,  492  ;  in  Arcadia, 
493  ;    Allusion   in   Homer  to,  493  ; 

Games  to,  367;  Hecatomb  to,  3iO; 
A  slave  set  free  by,  531 

Implements  of,  493 
Alcibiades,  Shoes  named  after,  66;  at  a 

Apollo-Coropaeus,  Oracle  of,  345 
Apoxyomenos,  The,  of  Lysippus,  285 

banquet,  21b 

Arcadians,  The,  458 

Alcmene,  her  song  to  her  children,  85 

Arcesilas  of  Cvrene,  514 

Alexander  UieGreatand  Roxana;  picture 

Archery,  Skill  of  Cretans  in,  300  ;  In- 

of  their  marriage,  bv  Aetion,  364 
Alexandria,  School  of,  128 

struction  in,  124  (See,  also,  Bow  and 
Arrows) 

538 


INDEX. 


Archon  Basileut,  Dress  of  the,  4 

Areopagus,  The,  102 

Arginusae,  the  battle  of,  Slaves  at, 
631 

Argolis,  871 

Argos,  Prophecy  at,  344 

Ariadne,  444 

Aristarchus,  inventor  of  sun-dials,  185 

Aristophanes,  his  allusions  to  chitons 
and  mode  of  wearing  the  hair,  69 ; 
allusions  to  nurseries,  85  ;  allusion 
to  the  mother  of  Pheidippides,  98  ; 
his  descriptions  of  marriage,  134, 
170 ;"  Birds  "  of,  140  ;"  Fro^  "  of, 
200  ;  allusion  to  fidelity  of  citizens 
to  judicial  duties,  195  ;  The  "  Achar- 
nians"  of,  236,  383;  his  account  of  the 
recovery  of  Plutus  from  blindness, 
240 ;  Comedies  of,  392  ;  Jokes  of,  436 

Aristotle,  Shaven  face  of,  73  ;  his  allu- 
sion to  the  flute,  112 ;  teaches  in 
the  Lycenm,  127  ;  his  opinion  of 
work,  490,  of  tradesmen,  510 

Arithmetic  in  Spartan  education,  101 ; 
in  Attic  education,  111,  127 

"  Armour-race,"  The,  278,  274 

Arms,  Exposure  of,  18 

Arms,  presented  to  ephebi,  118  ;  used  in 
war,  452  ;  of  Homeric  soldiers,  460; 
of  later  times,  462—480 

Army  of  Si<arta,  454—456  ;  of  Athens, 
456—460  (See,  also,  Soldiers) 

Artemidorus,  Dream-book  of,  342 

Artemis,  Chiton  of,  29  ;  Dolls  offered  to, 
92  ;  invoked  at  weddings,  137, 144 ; 
Sacrifice  at  Pythian  Games  to,  367 

Artist,  Profession  of,  489,  500  ;  Work- 
shop of  an,  504 

Askolia,  Game  of,  384 

Aspasia,  172 

Astragals  (See  Knuckle-bones) 

Astronomy  in  Attic  schools,  114,  127 

Athene  at  her  toilet,  159  ;  as  a  weaver, 
498 

Athene-Hygeia,  875 

Athene  Polios,  872,  375,  877 

Athens,  Dress  at,  12 ;  Shoes  worn  at, 
55 ;  Walking-sticks  at,  64  ;  Mode  of 
dressing  the  hair  at,  68 ;  System  of 
education  at,  102—132  ;  Tribes  and 
clans  of,  143  ;  Daily  life  in,  179— 
201 ;  Streets  and  suburbs  of,  173, 
180  ;  Houses  at,  178,  181 ;  Duties 
and  voluntary  services  of  citizens  of, 
194,  195;  Banquets  in,  203—232; 
Festivals  of,  372-390 ;  Theatre  of, 
396 ;  Military  service  in,  456 

Athletes,  Hair  of,  69  ;  Complexion  of, 
285  ;  Position  and  training  of,  302 
—305;  useless  to  the  State,  305;  at 
Olympia,  358 

Auditorium  of  theatres,  398—402 

Augustus,  Obelisk  of,  in  the  Campus 
Martius,  185 

Babylonians,    their   arrangements    for 

measuring  time,  184 
Ball,  Game  of,  223,  299 
Bankers,  190,  516,  517,  518 


Banquets  for  men,  208 ;  Order  of  pro- 
ceedings at,  205 ;  The  various  dishes 
served  at,  206,  207 ;  Drinking  at, 
209  ;  at  religious  festivals,  349  ;  at 
Olympia,  363  (See,  also,  Symposium) 

Barbers'  shops,  189,  190 

BarbUon,  The,  314 

Barley-cake,  208 

Barter,  513 

Basilinna,  386,  387 

Baskets  for  learning  to  walk,  86 

Bathing  children,  85 

Baths  for  new-born  infants,  80  ;  in  gym- 
nasia, 121;  for  bride  and  bridegroom, 
137 ;  of  women,  159 ;  for  men,  192 
— 1 J4 ;  Public  and  private,  192, 193 ; 
connected  with  the  gymnasia,  1S2 

Battering-ram,  480 

Battle-axe,  The,  475 

Beard,  the,  Modes  of  wearing,  71—74 

Beer,  211 

Bib,  The,  24,  28,  32,  33,  35,  36,  39 

Birds,  Snaring,  197  ;  Sacrifice  of,  336 

Birds  of  Aristophanes.  140 

Birth  and  Infancy,  Period  of,  78—98 

Birthdays,  203 

"  Black  broth,"  178 

Blindness,  Cures  for,  240 

Board  of  Inspection  in  Sparta,  99 

Boating,  126 

Boehlau  on  the  woman's  chiton,  21 

Boeotians,  Food  of,  206 

Bogies,  88 

Boots,  52,  53 

Boule,  The,  195 

Bow  and  Arrows,  Teaching  tne  use  of, 
124  ;  Construction  of,  300  ;  in  war, 
476,  477  (See,  also,  Archery) 

"  Bowl  of  Duris,"  The,  307 

Boxing,  116,  123,  291,  292 ;  subject  to 
special  rules,  292 ;  Injuries  from, 
293  ;  Methods  of,  293—296 ;  Thongs 
used  in,  293,  296;  at  Olympia,  353 

Boys,  Clothing  of,  100,  118  ;  Education 
of,  99—132  ;  Gymnastic  exercises  of, 
100,  115,  116,  119—124  ;  Oath  taken 
by,  117  ;  period  when  classed  as 
epKebeia,  117 ;  exercised  in  arms, 
124;  horse-riding,  swimming,  boat- 
ing, and  marching,  124—126  ;  Ad- 
vanced instruction  of,  127,  128 ;  at 
quoit-throwing,  278 :  as  priests, 
325,  326 ;  at  the  Olympic 
353,  354  ;  at  Pythian  games, 
theatres,  447;  as  slaves,  521 

Branchidae,  The  Sanctuary  of,  341 

Bread,  207,  208 

Bridal  dress,  138 

Bridal  presents,  135 

Bridal  procession,  139 

Bridal  song,  140 

Bridal  torches,  139 

Brooches,  6 

Brygos,  vase  painter,  80 

Burning  the  dead,  250,  254,  255 

Byzantium,  Intemperance  at,  197 

Cakes,  207,  208 ;  for  Cerberus,  245 
Callirhoe,  The  sacred  water  of,  187 


INDEX. 


539 


Calypso,  145 

Citizens,  Dally  life  of,  188—201  ;  Jndi- 

Camps,  455 

cial  duties  and  voluntary  service* 

Caps,  Shape  and  material  of,  50 
Captives  taken  in  war,  452 

of,  195  ;  as  soldiers,  456 
Civic  rights  of  young  men,  133 

Carriages  for  infants,  90  :  of  the  rich,  198 

Civil  duties,  195 

Caryatid,  Dress  of  a,  37;  Head-drew  of 
a,  75 

Clans  at  Athens,  143 
Clarian  Temple  of  Apollo,  The,  344 

Castanets,  320 

Clarotae,  The,  522 

Cattle  rearing,  176,  406,  407 

Cleisthenes,  Reforms  of,  457 

Cavalry,  452,  457,  479,  480 
Cenotaphs,  264 

Cleon,  428 
Cloak,  The,  7  ;  Mode  of  wearing,  15,  17, 

Ceos,  Burial  ordinances  of,  251 

19  ;  Coloured,  47 

Cerberus,  245 

Clocks,  Water,  185—187 

Chairs,  202 
Chariot  races,  353,  354-357,  868,  373 

Clothes,  Washing,  156,  157 
Club,  The,  475 

Charioteers,  Costume  of,  4.  354 
Chariots,  Fighting  from,  451 
Charon,  The  piles  of,  59  ;  his  fees,  245 
Chemises,  43 

Club-rooms,  179,  192 
Cnidus,  Medical  school  of,  235,  239 
COCK  and  quail  fighting,  228 
Collins,  Material  and  shapes  of,  252,  253 

Children,  Customs  at  *he  birth  of,  78— 
80;  Swaddlings  lor,  80;  Suckling, 

Coins  put  into  mouths  of  dead  men,  245 
Callicratidas,  532 

81  ;  Legitimation  of,  81  ;  Exposure 

Colours  of  dress,  44—47 

of,  82  ;  Naming,  83  ;   Welcome  and 

Comedy,  414,  415,436-448 

Dedication  of,  82,  84  ;  Charms  for, 

Comus,  The,  230 

84  ;   in  the  nurseiy,   85  ;    Bathing, 
85  ;  Weaning,  85  ;  learning  to  walk, 

Concubinage,  145,  146 
Condottiere,  The,  459 

87  ;  Clothing  of,  88  ;    Threats    for 

Conjurers,  217 

rieting,  88  ;  Stories  for,  88  ;  Toys 

Conversations  and  discussions  at  sym- 

, 89-  -92  ;  Games  of,  92—97  ;  Chas- 

posia, 219 

tisement  of,  98  ;  Education  of,  98  ; 

Cooking,  206 

Registration     of     new-born,    143; 

Corinth,  Female  moralitv  at,  170  ;  The 

bound  to  obedience,  148;  at  meals, 

hetnerae  of,  171  ;  Temple  of  Aph- 

178 ;  at  the  Feast  of  Cans,  386  ;  as 

rodite  at,  173 

slavg,    621    (See,    also,   Boys   and 

Corn  dealers,  510 

Girls  j. 
Chionib,  -lamping  feat  of,  269 

Corymbus,  The,  68 
Cos,  Medical  school  of,  235,  239 

Chiton,  The,  long  and   short,  and  by 

Cosmetics,  165 

whom  worn,  3,4;  Homeric  descrip- 

Costume, Knowledge  of,  essential  to  a 

tions  of,  6  ;  Change  in  the  cut  of,  8  ; 
of  Hermes,   11  ;   of  workmen  and 

complete   picture  of  past  ages,  1  ; 
Theatrical,  432—  444  (See,  also,  Dress) 

others,  12  ;  Modes  of  wearing  the, 

Costume,  Greek,  Incorrect  ideas  of,  2  ; 

14,  15  ;  combined  with  the  himation, 

Two  kinds  of,  2  ;  Names  of  garments 

17  ;  worn  at  home,  19  ;  its  resem- 

in, 3  (See,  also,  Dress) 

blance  to  the  peplos,  20  ;  worn  by 

"  Cothurnus,"  The,  436 

women,   21,   84—26;     Changes  in, 
30  ;  Construction  of,  33  ;  Folds  of, 

Cottalms,  Game  of,  194,  220,  221 
Cotton  garments,  49 

33,  34  ;  Arrangement  of,  37  ;  Varie- 

Council of  Five  Hundred,  195,  440 

ties  of,  39—41  ;  Colour  of,  44,  45  ; 

Cradles,  81 

Patterns  of,  46  ;    Material    of,  47, 

Crematoria,  The,  250 

48  ;  on  the  stage,  438  ;   of  soldiers, 

Cieirida,  54 

465 

Crete,  Marriage  custom  at,  145  ;   skill 

Chlaina  (Cloak),    3;    shape  of,    7,  8; 
material  of,  15 

of  its  people  in  archery,  300,  478 
Crobylus,  The,  68,  75 

Chlamys,  The,  7  ;  pla<-e  of  its  origin,  17  ; 
shape  and  mode   of   wearing,   18  ; 

Ctesibius,  Water  clock  of,  187 
Cuirass,  The,  4(50,  462,  464,  465,  470 

of  Hermes  and  Apollo,  18,  19 

CultureofGreeks.llO 

Choragia,  The,  418 

Cup-bearers,  178,  321 

Choruses,  214,  350,  389,  392,  394,   413, 

Cups.  Wine,  213 

415;    Training  of,   417,    419,    420; 

"  Curl-holders,"  61,  71 

Prizes  to,  419  ;   The  selection    of, 

Curls  worn  by  men,  64,  65,  68 

420  ;  Dress  of,  444 

Curse  on  murderers,  251 

Circe,  145 

Cybele,  Musical  instruments  used  in  the 

Cirrha,  368 

worship  of,  319,  320 

Cithara,  The,  taught  in  Attic  schools, 

"  Cyclops,"  The,  415 

112  ;     Construction    of,    809—311  ; 

Cymbals,  320 

Mani.°-  -,f  playing,  311  ;  at  Pythian 

Cynin  philosophers,  Dress  of,  20  ,   Sare 

games,  366 

feet  of,  49  ;   Beards  of,  74  ;  aj  the 

Cithara  player,  Dress  of,  32  ;  at  ban- 

Cynosarges, 12Y 

quets,  133 

Cynosarges,  The,  at  Athens,  110 

540  INDEX. 

Cyrene,  Silphium  of,  514 


Daily  life  at  Sparta,  175— 179 ;  at 
Athens,  179-201 

Dancing,  at  symposia,  216 ;  Pantomimic, 
217  ;  chiefly  confined  to  professional 
performers,  321 ;  between  the  sexes 
unknown,  321 ;  for  religious  pur- 
poses, 821;  in  the  worship  of 
Dionysus,  321 ;  in  armour,  321 ; 
Singing  combined  with,  321 ;  Dis- 
tinction in  ancientand  modern,  322  ; 
in  connection  with  religious  mys- 
teries, 348;  after  religious  cere- 
monies, 350  ;  Choric,  417 

"  Daughter  of  Niobe,  A,"  39 

Death  and  burial,  Customs  connected 
with,  244—264 

Delos,  Proficiency  in  swimming  of  in- 
habitants of,  126 

Delphi,  Oracle  of,  342,  343;  Pythian 
games  at,  366—370 

Demeter,  Offering  of  swine  to,  336 ; 
Wanderings  of,  381 ;  Festival  in 
honour  of,  382 

Democedes,  the  physician,  238 

Demosthenes,  194 ;  Factory  of  the 
father  of,  529 

Dice,  97,  192,  194,  223,  224,  225,  347 

Diogenes,  his  allusion  to  the  care  taken 
of  sheep,  498 

Diomede,  Helmet  of,  468 

Dionysus,  Fillet  on  forehead  of,  71; 
Festival  of,  118  ;  in  a  vase  picture, 
169;  his  journey  to  Hades,  200; 
Hymn  in  praise'of,  212  ;  Worship 
of,  320  ;  Sacrifice  to,  333  ;  Goats 
offered  to,  336;  Festivals  of,  383— 
390 ;  Theati-e  of,  298,  403,  445 ;  on 
the  stage,  442 

"  Dionysus,  The  Little,"  96 

Dionysos-Eleittheros,  386,  389 

Diplax,  The,  8 

Discipline  in  Sparta,  100 

"  Discobolus,"  The,  in  the  Vatican,  277 

Diseases,  described  in  inscriptions,  239  ; 
Modes  of  curing,  239—243 

Dishes  at  a  birth-festival,  84  ;  some- 
times enumerated  in  verse,  206 

Divorce,  Grounds  of,  148,  149 

Dodona,  Oracle  of  Zeus  at,  344 

Dogs  for  hunting,  196  ;  carried  about  in 
the  propitiation  of  Hecate,  331 

Dolls,  90—02 

Door,  Decking  the,  on  the  birth  of  * 
child,  78 

Doric  and  Ionic  costume,  Differences 
between,  22—30 

Dough,  as  a  substitute  for  table-nap- 
kins, 206 

Dowry,  Bride's,  135, 136 ;  Return  of.  149 

Dragon,  Apollo's  fight  with  the,  367 

Drama,  Origin  of,  392  ;  Divisions  of  the, 
411,  416;  Choregraphic  element  in 
the,  417 ;  Representation  of  the, 
421—448 

Dramas  at  Eleusinian  festivals,  381; 
at  the  Feast  of  Cans,  389,  390. 

Drapery  in  Egypt  4000  B.C.,  9  ;  among 


the  Phoenicians,  9;   as  shown  to 

vase  paintings,  30,  33,  34 
Drawing,  Teaching  of,  113,  127 
D,  awing  lute  at  Olympia,  360 
Dream  oracles,  340—243 
Dream-book  of  Artemklorus,  342 
Dreams,  341  ;  revealing  the  will  of  the 

gods,  342 

Dress,  of  actors,  4;  at  Athens,  12;  of 
charioteers,  4  ;  of  cynic  philoso- 
phers, 20  ;  of  flute  players,  4  ;  of 
gods,  3  ;  of  harp  players,  4  ;  in 
Ionia,  12  ;  of  the  age  of  Pericles,  2  ; 
of  priests,  4,  327;  of  riders,  18, 
125;  of  soldiers,  8,  18,  455;  in 
Sparta,  12  ;  of  workmen,  12,  19, 
502;  of  youths,  18,  100,  106,  lit,  ; 
of  women,  20—49  ;  Colour  and 
pattern  of,  44  ;  with  designs  of 
figures,  47  ;  Matt  Hal  of,  47,  48  ; 
of  hetaerae,  48  ;  of  children,  87,  8f  ; 
paidagogoi,  103;  of  female  gymnast, 
132;  of  bride,  138;  of  bridegroom, 
139  ;  of  a  corpse,  245  ;  of  funeral 
-  mourners,  251  ;  of  peasants,  497  ; 

of  slaves,  624 
Drinking  parties,  197,   202,  209;    Re- 

presentations of.  212 
Drinking  songs,  215 
Drunkenness,  230  ;  of  women,  170 
Dumb-bells,  116  ;  used  in  jumping,  266 
Duris,  vase-painter,  30  ;  his  representa- 

tion of  school-teaching,  100 
Dwellings  in  Sparta,  177  ;  in  Athens, 

179,  181 
Dyeing  the  hair,  166 

Early  rising,  194 

Ear-rings,  65 

Ecstasy,  341, 

Education,  Distinction  In  the  Doric 
and  Ionic  states  in  system  of,  ysi  ; 
in  Sparta,  99—102,  130,  132  ;  in 
Athens,  102—132  (See,  also.  Schools) 


Egypt,  Drapery  in,  9 
Eleusinian 


celebrations,  151,  877—382 
Elians,  The,  358,  363 
Embalming,  249 
Embroidery,  45,  130 
Ephebi,  117;  Double  use  of  the  term, 

117  ;  The  oath  taken  by,  117  ;  their 

change   of  dress,  and   dedicatory 

rites,  118  ;   Military  education  of. 

124,  126,  127,  456 
Ephesus,  Ruins  of  wrestling  school  at, 

121  ;  theatre  of,  402 
Epliors,  The,  454 
Epicureans,  The,  128 
Epidaurian  sacrifice,  379 
Epidaurus,  Sanctuary  of  Aesculapius  at, 

239,  242,  243 

Epithalamium  of  Helen,  141 
Erinnys,  The,  335 
Ei-os,  Glorification  of,  220 
Ethics,  110 

Etruscan  graves,  Spirals  found  in,  65 
Euphorbus,  The  hair  of,  65 
Euripides,  his  tirades  against  married 

life,  134,  170  ;  Songs  from  216  ;  on 


INDEX. 


541 


Olympic  games,  865  ;  Tetralogies  of, 
412;   "Cyclops"   of,    415;   repre- 

Sparta, 130,  181;   debarred    from 
social  intercourse,  133  ;  as  priest- 

sented on  the  stage,  423 

esses,  325,  326  ;  of  Elis,  366 

Evil  eye,  The,  83 

Glaucus,  304 

Kxomis,  mode  of  wearing  the  chiton, 

Gloves,  55,  56 

13  ;  on  the  stage,  438 

Goat-rearing,  497 

Exposure  of  infants,  82 
Eyebrows,  Dyeing  the,  168 

Gods,  Costume  of,  3;  Libations  to,  212; 
Temples  of.  324;  modes  of  revealing 

their  will,   324;    their    desire    for 

Factories,  529 

worship  and  sacrifice,  824  ;  Prayer* 

Fair  at  Olympic  Festival,  367 

to,  328  ;  Sacrifices  to  the,  331  -335 

Fairy  tales,  88 
Farms,  Management,  of,  492.  493 

Gold  masks  discovered  at  Mycenae,  72 
"  Good    genius,"     the,    Drinking    in 

"  Fast  and  Loose,"  Game  of,  226 

honour  of,  209 

Feast  of  Adonis  at  Alexandria.  391 

Gorgias,  his  discourses  at  Olympia,  301 

"  Feast  of  Piu-hers,"  The,  38(1 

Graser   on    arrangement    of    rowinp- 

F.-',  ihe,  Coverings  f,.r,  49—55 

benches,  484 

J":!t  {.•••miients,  49 

Grasshoppers,  Golden,  for  the  hair,  68, 

Fein-ing,  124 

69,71 

Festivals,  Costume  for.   3,  46  ;  at  the 

Graves,  252  ;  Adornment  of,  254  ;  Liba- 

l.irth  of  children,  82—84  ;    of  the 

tions  at,  256  ;  Cai  e  of,  262 

Panathenaea,    124  ;   at   marriages 

Greaves,  460,  461,  462 

138  ;  for  women,  151  ;  of  Adonis 

Gieece,  Conditions  in  heroic  period,  4ji 

152;  Religious,  195,  349,  350,  351 

"Guest-friend,"  The,  199,  200 

Frequency  of,  203  ;   National,  350 

Guests,  Reception  of,  203,  204 

at  Olympia,  351—366  ;  at  Delphi 

Gvlippns,  532 

306—370  ;  Isthmian,  370  ;  Nemean, 

Gymnasia,  The,  115  ;  State  institutions, 

371  ;  Athenian,  372—891 

119  ;  at  Athens,  and  their  arrange- 

Fibulae, 6,  32,  33,  39,  69 
"  Ficoronese  Cista,"  The,  296 

ment,    119,    120;   of  Rome,    120; 
Teachers  in,  122,  123 

Fireless  sacrifices,  334 

Gymnasiarchs,  The,  122 

Fish,  Eating,  207 

Gymnastic     exercises,     265—305  ;     in 

Fish-market,  191 

Sparta,  301  ;  in  Athens,  115—124  ; 

Fishing,  197 
"  Five-lines,"  Game  of,  224 

of  Spartan  girls,  130,  131 

Flowers  for  funeral  wreaths,  245 

Hades,  Temple  of,  243 

Flute,    the,    Instruction   in,  107,   112  ; 
neglected  at  Athens,  but  popular  at 

Hair,  the,  Modes  of  wearing,  of  men. 
64—74  ;  of  women,  74—77  ;  curled, 

Tliebes,  112  ;    its  Bacchic  origin, 

64,   75  ;  plaited,   66,   67,  75  ;  orna- 

112; carefully  avoided  in  Sparta, 

mented,  65,  68,  77  ;  cut  short,  69  : 

113;  Construction  of,  315  ;  playing, 
316—319  ;  at  Pythian  games,  866 
Flute  players   Costume  of,  4  ;  at  sym- 

Modes  of  cutting,    71  ;   Shaving, 
71  ;   Scenting,   74  ;    Kerchiefs  for 
76,  77  ;  parted  in  the  middle,  76  ; 

posia,  214,  216  ;  at  sacrificial  cere- 

with   "  Greek  knot,"  76  ;    with  a 

monies,  338  ;  as  slaves,  521 

fillet,  77  ;  of  ejihebi,  118  ;  Laconian 

Forfeits,  213 

custom  of  cutting  off  the  bride's, 

Fortune-telling,  347 

144  ;    dyeing,    166  ;    cut    off    at 

"  Frogs,"  The,  of  Aristophanes,  200 

funerals,  251  ;  of  soldiers,  455 

"  Frog's  wine,"  210 
Fruits,  208 
Fuller's  earth  used  in  wasliii.;,  188 

Handicrafts,  176  ;  of  gods,  498  ;  depre- 
ciation of,  499,  500  ;  in  the  hands  ol 
three  classes,  500  ;  of  foreigners,  501 

Funerals,  203,  245-264  ;  Bearurs  at,  252  ; 

Hands,  Washing,  at  meals,   205,  2)6; 

Cars    at,    250;    Games    a\    290; 

Lines  of,  347 

Laments  at,  246  ;  Orations  at,  255 

Hangmen,  525 

Harp,  The,  215 

Gamelion,  The  month,  favourite  time 

Harp  players,  Costume  of,  4:  •*  wym- 

for  weddings,  136 

posia,  215 

Games  of  children,  92-97,  223  ;  at  the 
symposium,  220,  223—229 

Hats,  Place  of  origin  of,  56  ;  Various 
shapes  of,  56—59;    of  straw,  for 

Gaming  houses.,  197 

women,  61 

Gaolers,  525 

Head,  the,  Coverings  for,  56—61 

Gardens  at  Athens,  182 

Hecate,   Propitiation    of,   in    cases   of 

Geometry  in  Attic  schools,  114,  127 
Gifts  for  new-born  children,  83 
Girdle,  The,  11,  20,  23,  24,  35,  39 

madness,  &c.,  331,  336 
Hecatomb,  Offering  of  a,  337  ;  to  Apollo 
at  the  Pythian  Festival,  370;    to 

Girls,  Early  marriages  of,  92;  Education 

Athene  Polias,  377 

of,  129  ;   Domestic  instruction  of, 
130;  Plato  on    the  education  of, 

Hector,  145  ;  Wail  at  death  of,  248 
Helen,  Epithate-nium  of,  141 

180;    their  gymnastic  training  in 

Helios,  Sacrifice  of  horses  to,  SM 

542 


INDEX. 


Helmer,  The,  466-469  ;    of  Dioraede, 

Hysiae,  Prophecy  at.  848 

468  ;  of  Amphiaraus,  469 

"  Helots,"  The,  454,  455,  478,  522 

lacchus,  379,  380 

Hephaestus,  The  pilos  of,  69  ;  Gifts  to 
newly-wedded  pair  from,  143  ;   at 

Immorality  of  the  age  of  Pericles,  174 
Implements  of  agriculture,  493 

the  forge,  498 

"  Incroyables,"  94. 

Hera,  invoked  at  weddings,  137  ;  with 

"Incubation"  in  the  cure  of  disease. 

her  mirror,  163  ;  Temple  of,  362 

239—242 

Herbs,  Medical,  234 

Infantry,  452  ;  Armour  of,  461  ;  In  the 

Hercules,  Drunken,  230 

time  of  Persian  wars,  478 

Hermes,  The  chiton  of,  11  ;  The  hima- 

Infernal  deities,  335,  349 

tion  of,  15  ;  The  chlamys  of,  18  ; 
The  petasos  of,  56;  Cradle  of,  81  ; 

Inns,  200,  3(56 
Inscriptions  on  tombs,  256,  257 

Libation    to,     at    symposia,    230; 

Interpreters  of  dreams,  342  ;  of  propha- 

Inventor  of  the  lyre,  307 

eU-S,  343—347 

Herodotus,  on    female   dress,  22,  30  ; 
Travels  of,  198 

Ionia,  Dress  in,  12  ;  Shaving  in,  72 
Ionic  und  Doric  costumes,  Differences 

Hesiod,    in    Attic   schools,    110  ;    his 

between,  22-30 

opinion  of  work,  4aO 
Hetaerae,  Dress  of,  48  ;  Literary  culture 

Iphicrates,  Shoes  named  after,  55  ;  re- 
introduces  the  sword  into  the  Greek 

of,    129;    Position    of,    133,    173; 

army,  475 

without  legal  protection,  173;  at 

Ismenus,  The  sacred  water  of  the,  137 

meals,  203  ;  at  symposia,  216  ;  as 
slaves,  521  ;  reason  of  their  social 

Isocrates,  128;   lecturing  at  Olvmpia, 
364  ;  Factory  of  the  fattier  of,  529 

intercourse    with    men,  172  ;  Tax 

Isthmian  games,  The,  their  similarity  to 

exacted  from,  173  ;  In  Old  Comedy, 

the  Olympic,  370  ;  Prizes  and  recita- 

170 ;  sanctioned  by  the  State,  171  ; 

tions  at,  370 

Celebrities  amongst,  172  ;  their  in- 

fluence on  the  marriage  relation- 

Javelin-throwing, 278,  279,  282,  478 

ship,  148;  in  a  vase  picture,  167; 

Javelins,  Hunting  with,  196,   475  ;    in 

at  the  theatre,  447 

war,  476 

Hiero,  vase  painter,  9,  30 

Jewel  caskets,  164 

Himation.  Tha,  3,  6  ;  mode  of  wearing, 

Judges  at  Olympic  games,  358 

15  ;  of  youths,  18  ;  of  women,  26, 

Judgment  of  Paris,  The,  159 

41  ;   as  a  scarf,  41  ;   Colour  of,  M, 

Judicial  duties,  195 

45  ;  Embroidery  of,  47  ;  drawn  over 

Jugglers,  218 

the  head,  60 

Jumping,  116,  121;  Varieties  of,  265; 

"  Hipparchs,"  The,  457 

Dumb-bell  used  in,  266,  2fi7  ;  Leap- 

Hipparehus,  215 

ing-poles  in,  2(58;  Spring-boards  in, 

Hippias,  Discourses  at  Olympia  of,  364 

269  ;  Distances  covered  in,  269,  270  ; 

Hippocrates,  Oath  of,  236 

at  Olympia,  353,  360 

Hippodamus  of  Miletus,  179 

Jurymen,  195 

Hippodrome,  The,  356,  361 

Hobby-horse,  The,  93 

Kerameikos,  The,  377 

Homer,  his  reference  to   skins  as  the 

Kerchiefs  for  the  hair,  76,  77 

dress  of  soldiers,  8  ;  his  allusion  to 
Lafirtes  gardening,   55  ;    in  Attic 

Kisses  in  the  worship  of  gods,  329 
Kitchen,  The,  183 

schools,  110;  his  description  of  the 
life  of  nobles,  175  ;  his  allusion  to 
warm  baths,  192  ;  allusion  to  phy- 
sicians, 233;    his  account  of  the 

Kite-flying,  93 
Kladeos,  The,  121 
Knees,  the,  Exercises  in  bending,  299 
"Knuckle-bones,  97,  194,  224  ;  Mode  ol 

funeral  games  in  honour  of  Patro- 

playing  with,  225 

clus,  357  ;  his  allusions  to  armour, 

Kolotes.  Table  of,  at  Olympia,  862 

465,  466.  467,  475;  to  agriculture, 

Kolpos,  The,  11,  28,  30,  33 

493  ;  to  handicraftsmen,  498 

Honey,    of   Hymettus,    208;    used   to 

Laconian  marriage  custom,  144 

check  dissolution  of  a  corpse,  249 

Ladas,  The  runner,  271 

Horace's  PUiqosus  Orbilius,  105 

Lady's  maid,  162 

Horae,  The,  143 

Laertes,  55,  145,  176 

Horse-cloths,  125 

Lais,  172 

Horse-racing,  270,  367 

Lament,  Funeral,  246 

Horse-rearing,  496 

Lance,  The,  472,  476,  480 

Horse-shoes,  480 

Laws  of  Lycurgus,  100 

Hospitality,  Custom  of,  199 

Laying-out  a  corpse,  246,  249 

Human  sacrifice,  335 

Leaping-poles,  268 

Hunting,    among    the    Dorians,    178  ; 

Leather  tunics,  49 

among  the  Athenians,  196 
Hvmen,  Torch  of,  140 

Lectures  at  Olympic  Festivals,  864 
Legends  told  to  children,  88 

Uyiuenaeui,  140 

Legitimation  of  children,  81 

INDEX.  543 


Lenaea,  Festival  of,  884 
Leto,  Sacrifice  at  Pythian  games  to,  367 
Liltttions,    Daily.   328;    as   bloodless 
sacrifices,  335 ;  at  the  sacrifice  of 
animals,  338 

Linen  garments,  22,  29,  47,  497 
Lions,  196,  197 

'•  Liturgies,"  The,  275,  375,  418 
Lots,  Drawing,  at  Olympia,  360 
Love,  Idea  of,  in  "  New  Attic  Comedy," 
134;     in    Aphrodite    Urania,    and 
Aphrodite  Pandemos,  of,  134. 
Love-charms,  95 
Lunch  in  Athens,  191 
Lycabettos,  Tlie,  at  Athens,  119 
Lyceum,  The,  at  Athens,  119,  127 
Lycurgus,  Laws  of,  100 
Lye,  as  a  substitute  for  soap,  188 
Lyre,    the,    Instruction   in,  107,   112; 
played  at  banquets,  215  ;  an  inven- 
tion of  Hermes,  307  ;  Construction 
of.  307—309;  Manner  of  playing,  311 
Lysander,  532 
Lysias,  lecturing  at  Olympia,  364 ;  owner 

of  a  shield  factory,  529 
Lysippus,  the  Apoxyomenos  of,  285 

Machinery  in  the  Greek  theatre,  409-411 

Madness,  Methods  supposed  to  cure,  331 

Maenads,  The,  390 

Magic,  Antidotes  to,  84 ;  in  curing 
disease,  243 

Magna  Graecia,  Lunch  in,  191 ;  Luxuri- 
ous living  in,  206 

Manuring  the  ground,  494 

"  Market  of  Hippodamus,"  180 

Market-place,  The,  190,  514 

Marriage,  entered  into  early  by  girls,  92, 
136 ;  Tirades  of  Aristophanes  and 
Euripides  against,  134  ;  a  matter  of 
contract  between  fathers  or  guar- 
dians, 135  ;  Bride'8  dowry  at,  135  ; 
Homeric  custom  of  bridegroom 
bringing  presents  at,  135  ;  Engage- 
ment prior  to,  136 ;  Favourite  month 
and  days  for,  136 ;  Ceremonies  of, 
137 ;  Banquet  at  a,  138 ;  Dress  of 
bride  and  bridegroom  at,  138,  139  ; 
Bridal  procession  at,  139 ;  Singing 
and  torches  at,  140,  141 ;  Gifts  and 
congratulations  after,  142 ;  Monu- 
mental representations  of,  143,  144  ; 
Laconian  custom  of,  144  ;  Laws  of 
Lycurgus  respecting,  146  ;  Grounds 
for  dissolution  of,  148,  149;  Sym- 
bolical customs  at,  140,  141 

Masks,  theatrical,  Material  of.  425; 
Designs  of,  426;  Three  kinds  of, 
426,  428;  tor  different  sexes,  ages, 
phases  of  character,  and  moods  of 
mind,  429 ;  for  mythological  cha- 
racters, 430 

Massage  in  gymnasia,  123,  285 

Match-makers,  135 

Mattock,  The,  493 

Maza,  208 

Meals,  in  Sparta,  177.  178;  in  Athens, 
191,  194 ;  in  the  evening,  202  ;  Be 
dining  at,  205 ;  Simplicity  of,  in 


Athens,  206 ;  The  various  dishes  at. 

206,  207 

Meat,  Varieties  of,  206 
Medical  schools  of  Cos  and  Cnidus,  235, 

Medical  students,  236 

Medusae,  The,  88 

Meeting-halls,  179 

Megalopolis,  Theatre  of,  402 

Memnon,  Figure  of  death  of,  469 

Menander,  Shaven  face  of,  73 

Menecrates,  237 

Merchants,  197,  512,  517 

Metal-founders,  504 

Milo,  304 

Military  expeditions,  198  (See,  ako,  War) 

Military  training  ofephebi,  124, 126, 127  ; 
of  lower  classes,  176,  455 

Miracle,  Love  of,  in  connection  with  the 
healing  art,  239 

Mirrors,  162,  163 

Money-changers,  190,  516 

Money  systems,  513 

Monuments,  Drapery  of,  9 

Morra.  The  game  of,  227 

Mortgages,  516,  517 

Mountebanks,  243 

Moustache,  The,  72 

Mules  and  asses,  496 

Murderers,  Curse  on,  251 

Muses,  The,  335 

Musia,  Compulsory  instruction  in  Sparta 
i  in,  101 ;  Instruction  at  Attic  schools 
in,  111—113  ;  at  a  symposium,  212  ; 
Branches  and  instruments  of,  30«— 
320 ;  after  religious  ceremonies,  350  ; 
at  Pythian  games,  366  ;  of  the  stage, 
413-421 

Musical  contests,  449 

Musical  dialogues,  416 

Muslin  garments,  49 

Mycenae,  Discoveries  at,  8 ;  Gold  masks 
at,  72 

Myron's  statue  of  Ladas,  271 ;  of  Disco- 
bolus, 277 

Mythology  taught  in  Attic  schools,  110 

Myths,  Religious,  348 

Nails,  Cutting  the,  189 

Naming  children,  83,  84 

Nausieaa  on  the  sea-shore,  146,  15 

Nemean  games,  371 

"  New  Attic  Comedy,"  The,  134 

Nissen  on  life  at  Athens,  181 

Nobles,  Daily  life  of,  175,  176 ;  in  the 

heroic  period,  451 
Nurseries,  85 
Nurses,  children's,  Duties  of,  85 

Oath  taken  by  ephebi,  117;  of  Hippo- 

crates,  236 ;  taken  by  athletes,  3(K) 
Obedience  to  elders  in  Sparta,  100 
Oculists,  238 
Odysseus,  The  pilos  of,  59  ;  Fidelity  of, 

145 ;  playing  at  quoits,  275 ;  Ship 

of,  482 
"Odyssey,"  The,  Description  of  Nan- 

sicaa      in,      156;     Quoit- Hi  rowing 

mentioned  in,  276 


544 


INDEX. 


"  Oedipus  at  Colonus,"  488 

Oils,  Sweet-scented,  for  the  hair,  74  ; 
for  the  body,  162 ;  for  a  corpse,  245 ; 
used  by  runners,  271;  used  by 
wrestlers,  284  ;  supplied  to  foreign 
countries,  494 

Oinopides,  364 

Olives,  494,  495 

Olympia,  Arrangements  of  gymnasia  at, 
120 ;  Wrestling  school  of,  121 

Olympic  Festival,  the,  Chronology  of, 
351 ;  Mythic  origin  of,  352;  Persons 
excluded  froin,  352,  353  ;  Contests 
at,  353—359  ;  Embassies,  and  sacri- 
flee  to  Zeus  at,  359 ;  Swearing  of 
competitors  at,  360 ;  Drawing  of 
lots  by  competitors  and  prayer  to 
Zeus  Moiragetes  at,  360 ;  Order  of 
competitions  at,  361 ;  Distribution 
of  prizes  at,  362  ;  Sacrifices  at,  362, 
863;  Banquets  at,  363;  Recita- 
tions, art  exhibitions,  and  official 
announcements  at,  364 ;  Represent- 
atives of  all  classes  at,  365 ;  Fair 
connected  with,  366 

Olympic  games,  274,  304,  352-359 

Omens,  Interpretation  of,  340 

Oracles,  The,  341 ;  of  Apollo,  842 ; 
uttered  by  Pythia,  343  ;  at  various 
places,  343  -  346  ;  Questions  to,  844 

Orations,  Funeral,  255 

Orchestra  of  theatres.  398,  403 

Orestes,  Purification  of,  330 

Ornaments  for  the  hair,  65,  68,  71,  77 ; 
of  bride,  138 

Paean,  The,  214 

Paidagogos,  Duties  of  a,  102,  116 ;  his 
bad  influence,  103  ;  on  the  stage,  436 

Painting  school  of  Sicyon,  113 

Paintings,  The  chiton  in,  4;  Folds  of 
dress  in,  9;  Representations  of 
daily  life  in,  19  ;  at  Olympia,  304 

Palm  branch,  The,  362 

Pamphilias,  113 

Panathenaea,  Festivals  of  the,  124, 151 ; 
The  lesser  and  greater,  372 ;  Con- 
tests at  the,  372-375  ;  Pyrrhic  war 
dance,  374  ;  Muster  of  men  at,  374, 
875  ;  Torch-race  at,  376  ;  Procession 
at,  376  ;  Judges  at,  378 

Pancratium,  The,  116,  123,  296 ;  its 
importance  as  a  mode  of  fighting, 
297  ;atOljmpia,  353 

Pandora,  Box  of,  233 

Pantomimic  dancing,  217 

Papyrus  in  schools,  109 

Parabasis,  The,  414 

Paris,  The  chiton  of,  11 ;  The  hlmation 
of,  15 ;  The  hair  of,  64,  163 

Parthenon  marbles,  Female  drapery  of 
the,  2  ;  Hats  in,  56 ;  \Valking-sticks 
in,  64  ;  Head-dresses  in,  76 

Patroclus,  Funeral  games  in  honour  of, 
290,  357;  his  arm  bandaged  by 
Achilles,  404 

Pdusanias,  239  ;  his  allusion  to  the  Hip- 
Vo.lr.nne,  356 
uiU   4i>3.  4d4,  495 


Pedlars,  513,  514 

Peisistratus,  372 

Peitho  invoked  at  weddings,  187 

Peleus  and  Thetis,  143 

Peloponnesus,  the,  Soldiers  frosa,  459  • 
Handicrafts  in,  501 

"  Peltasts,"  The,  478 

Penelope,  145;  at  the  loom,  153,  154; 
Wooers  of,  176 

Penestae,  The,  522 

Pentathlum,  The,  116,  123,  297,  298,  353 

Peplos,  the,  Shape  and  mode  of  wearing, 
20,  21 ;  The  Homeric  supposed  to  be 
identical  with  the  Doric,  21,  22  ;  of 
Athenian  women,  22 ;  on  vase  pic- 
tures, 22,  23 

Pergaiaum,  School  of,  128 

Pericles,  LJress  of  the  age  of,  2  ;  Beard 
of,  73;  and  Aspasia,  172;  Immoral- 
ity of  the  age  of,  174;  and  the 
theatre,  445 

"  Perioiki,"  The,  454 

Peronatris  (robe),  The,  43 

Persephone,  381 

Petasos  (hat),  56,  57,  59 ;  of  women,  61 

Phaeacians,  The,  176 

Phayllus,  Jumping  feat  of,  269 

Pheidias,  Costume  of  the  age  of,  37 ;  his 
descendants  as  temple  •  servants,  328 

Pheidippides,  The  mother  of,  98 

Pheiditia,  177 

Philosophy,  Schools  of,  127,  128 

Philtres,  331 

Phocylides  in  Attic  schools,  110 

Phoenicians,  the,  Drapery  among,  9  ; 
Dishonesty  of,  510 

Phorminx,  The,  taught  in  Attic  schools, 
112,  812 

Phryne,  172 

"Phylarchs,"The,457 

Physicians,  and  the  treatment  of  infants, 
80 ;  their  early  connection  witli 
priests,  234;  Guild  of,  235;  their 
apprentices,  235 ;  Two  classes  of, 
236 ;  Complaints  against,  237 ; 
Salaries  of  public,  238;  as  specialists, 
238  ;  their  methods  of  treatment,  238 

Physiognomy,  Fortunes  told  from,  347 

Picnics,  204 

Pilgrimages,  to  shrines,  198  ;  of  invalids 
to  medical  sanctuaries,  239 

Pindar,  Odes  of,  363 

Pipe,  The,  used  as  the  double  flute,  316 

Plagiaulos,  The,  820 

Plague,  Great,  in  camp  of  the  Greeks,  233 

Plaiting  the  hair,  66,  67 

Plato,  on  the  care  of  children,  87  ;  recom- 
mends fencing,  124  ;  teaching  at  the 
Academy,  127  ;  on  the  education  of 
girls,  130;  supposed  to  have  invented 
water  clocks,  186;  The  "Sympo- 
sium "  of,  204,  214  ;  simplicity  of  his 
meals,  206  ;  on  music  at  symposia, 
216  ;  his  opinion  of  work,  490 

Plays  of  Greek  stage,  of  three  kinds, 
411 ;  Tragic,  412—414  ;  Comic,  414, 
415  ;  Satyric,  415,  416 

Plough,  The,  493,  495 

Plutus,  hia  recovery  from  blindness,  240 


INDEX. 


545 


Podalirius,  284 
Poets  at  Olympic  festival,  864,  865 
Polenta,  W& 

Reading  and  writing  at  Sparta,  101  ;  At 
Athens,  108—110 
Recitations  at  Olympic  festivals,  864 

Police  of  Athens,  180,  525,  526 

Reclining  at  meals,  205 

Polvcrates,  238 

Reeds  for  writing  109 

Polydamas,  304 

Regattas,  126,  8T7 

Polygnotus,  his  paintings  of  women,  76 

Registration  of  new-born  children.  143 

Pomades,  64,  72,  74 

Reliefs,  Representations  of  daily  life  in, 

Porridge,  207,  208 
Poseidippus,  Shaven  face  of,  73 

19 
Religious  festivals,  195 

Poseidon,  Dress  of,  19  ;  Sacrificial  offer- 
ing of  horses  to,  836 

Religious  myths,  348 
Religious  worship,  823—348  ;  chiefly  in 

Pot  Market,  The,  618 

the  hands  of  laymen  in  Homeric 

Poultry,  206 

times,    823  ;    The    two    forms  of, 

Pratinas,  415 

328  ;  its  cheerfulness,  349 

Praxiteles,  Statue  of  Phryne  by,  172 

Resin  wine,  211 

Prayer,  offered  by  priests,  326  ;  Times 
for  offering,  328  ;  for  special  occa- 

Rhai'sodists, Competition  between,  872 

sions,  328  ;  Attitude  in,  328  ;  Quali- 

Rhodes, 228  ;  Slingers  of,  478 

fications  to  ensure  the  efficacy  of, 

Riders,  The  chlamys  of,  18 

829  ;  at  the  utterance  of  oracles, 

Riding,  Instruction  in,  124,  126 

343  ;  to  Zeus  Moiragetes,  360 

Rid  ing  races,  353 

Presents,  Bridal,  142 
Priam,  Figure  of,  4 

Riddles,  214,  219,  220 
R-ad-making,  198 

Priestesses,  Qualifications  of,  325  ;  with 

Robbers,  200,  201 

the  gift  of  prophecy,  843,  344 
Priests,  Costume   of,    4  ;    Practice  of 

Rope-pulling,  299 
Rougeing,  Practice  of,  166,  160 

healing  art  by,  238;    their  office, 

Rowers,  482—486 

and  gradual  increase  of  their  in- 

Running, The  course  for,  270  ;  Speed 

fluence,  824;  of  both  sexes,  325; 

attained  in,  271  ;  Starting-signal  for, 

Qualifications  of,   325;   Modes   of 

and  method  adopted  for  making  the 

appointing,  327  ;  their  duties,  326  ; 
their  privileges  and  distinguishing 

limbs  flexible  in,  271;   Mode   of, 
272,273;  at  Olympia,  863 

dress,  327  ;  their  attendants,  327 
Prizes   at   Olympic  festival,    362  ;   of 

Sacrifice  at  a  birth-festival,   84;    at 

poets  and  actors,  449 
Prodicus,    Discourses   at   Olympia  of, 

weddings,  136,  137  ;  a  common  oc- 
currence, 203  ;  of  swine  and  suck- 

364 

ing-pigs,  330;  object  of,  331;  the 

Prophecy  and  divination,  841—348  (See, 

idea  underlying,  832  ;  variety  of  gifts 

also,  Oracles) 
"  Protagonist,"  or  chief  actor,  405 
Ptolemy  Philopater,  Ship  of,  486 
Public  houses,  197 
Purification,  after  childbirth,  84;  be- 
fore offering  prayer,  329  ;  by  fire, 
smoke,  and  the  sea-leek,  830;  of 

offered  in,  332,  333;   bloody  and 
bloodless,  884,  835  ;  ceremonies  ob- 
served in,  887  ;  for  discovering  the 
will   of  the  gods   by   interpreta- 
tion of  signs,  840  ;  at  the  utterance 
of  oracles,  843;   time  of  offering, 
849  ;   at  Olympia,  363  ;  The  Epid- 

Orestes,  330 

aurian,  379  ;  before  war,  460 

Pyrrhic  war  dance,  374 

Sailors,  481,  483-486 

Pythia,    utterer  of  oracles,   848;    the 

Salone,  The,  190 

Great  and  the  Lesser,  366 

Samtmca,  The,  818 

Pythian  games,  The  musical  competi- 
tion at,  366  ;    Sacrifices   and  the 

Sandals  worn  by  men  and  women,  60  ; 
how  made,  51  ;  Children  chastised 

Pythian  Nomos  at,  867  ;  Gymnastic 

with,  98  ;  removed  at  banquets,  205 

and   Equestrian   contests  at,  368; 

Satyric  drama,  416,  442,  444 

The    Amphictyons  at,    869;   Ex- 

Satyrs, 833 

penses  of,  and  prizes  at,  369  ;  Reci- 
tations and  offerings  at,  870 
Pythian  Nomos,  The,  867 

Sauces,  207 
Sausages,  206 
Scarf,  The,  11  ;  of  Paris,  12 

Scenery  in  the  Greek  theatre,  407—409 

Quackery,  243 

Schools  of  Athens,  102—132  ;   Masters 

Quadrigae,  The,  452 

and  teachers  of,  104  ;  Furniture  of, 

Quail-fighting,  228 

104,  108  ;    Fees  of,  104  ;   Corpora! 

Quince,  The,  141 
Quintain,  Striking  at  the,  296 
Quoits,  121,  276,  277,  278 

punishmentin,  105;  Hours  of  tuition 
to,  106  ;  Holidays  in,  106  ;  Repre- 
sentation by  Duris  of  teaching  in, 

106  ;  System  of  tuition  in,  108—115  ; 

Racing,  Various  kinds  of,  270,  278 

Text-books  in,  110  ;  Instruction  in 

"Rape  of  Helen,  The,"  0 

music  in,  111-113;  Geometry  in, 

Razors.  188 

114,  127  ;  Time  of  opening,  168 

546  INDEX. 


Schools  of  philosophy,  127,  128 

Science,  Travelling  for  purposes  of,  198 

"Scolia,"The,  215 

-1  Scourge-bearers  "  of  Sparta,  100 

Sculptors,  501 

Scythe,  The,  493 

Seafaring,  481-488 

See-saw,  95 

Seers,  or  interpreters,  Connection  with 
the  priests,  825 

Segesta,  Theatre  of,  396 

Sewing,  130 

"Shadow-pointers,"  184,  185 

Shaving,  72,  73 

Shawls,  42 

Sheep-rearing,  496,  498 

Shields,  469-471,  480 

Ships,  Mode  of  navigating,  481 ;  Con- 
struction of,  482-  488 

Shirt,  The,  20 

Shoemakers,  502,  503,  504 

Shoes,  Various  designs  of,  52,  54,  55 

Shopkeepers,  190,  197 

Sicily,  190, 191  ;  Luxurious  living  in,  206 

Sicyon,  Painting  school  of,  113 

Sieges,  Modes  of  conducting,  480,  481 

Sieves  used  for  prophecy,  347 

Signs,  Interpretation  of,"  346,  347 

Silk  garments,  49 

Silphium,  614 

Simonides,  216 

Singers,  Travelling,  198 

Singing  at  weddings,  140,  141 ;  at  the 
baths,  194  ;  at  a  symposium,  214 

Skins,  Clothes  made  of,  8,  49 

Slavery  interwoven  with  the  life  of  anti- 
quity, 519  ;  regarded  as  a  necessity 
of  nature,  519 ;  of  captives  taken  in 
war,  519, 520 ;  foreigners  sold  to,  521 ; 
Solon's  legislation  against,  521 ;  one 
of  the  causes  of  the  fall  of  Greece, 
532 

Slaves,  78  ;  entrusted  with  the  education 
of  children,  98 ;  employed  in  writ- 
ing, 109  ;  fetching  water,  151  ;  as 
ladies'  maids,  162 ;  Sleeping  apart- 
ments of,  182,  525  ;  sent  to  market, 
191 ;  at  the  baths,  194 ;  as  porters, 
181,  204 ;  taught  the  healing  art, 
237,  528  ;  at  a  funeral,  250 ;  at  the 
theatre,  447 ;  Captives  of  war  be- 
coming, 452 ;  The  Helot  class  of, 
454,  52-2  ;  in  agriculture,  490,  494  ; 
Markets  for,  520,  521 ;  Prices  paid 
for,  521 ;  their  condition  and  treat- 
ment, 523  ;  their  characters,  524  ; 
Masters'  rights  over,  524  ;  Dress  of, 
521 ;  their  food,  525 ;  working  on 
their  own  account  and  purchasing 
their  freedom,  525 ;  as  hangmen, 
gaolers,  &c.,  525;  Dwellings  of, 
525  ;  Protection  of,  526  ;  Torture  of, 
527;  Various  classes  of,  528;  in 
factories,  529  ;  their  liberation,  530, 
631 ;  their  numbers  in  Greece,  532 

Sleeves  of  chitons,  4,  11 ;  of  women's 


Slipper.,  54,  « 


Smoke  offerings,  335 

Snow-water  for  cooling  wine,  213 

Soap,  Substitutes  for,  188 

Social  life  among  Spartan  men,  179 

Socrates,  49.  50;  Wealth  of,  183; 
visiting  shops.  190  ;  Ablutions  of, 
188 ;  after  the  symposium,  232 ;  said 
to  have  taken  lessons  in  dancing,3*  1 ; 
wishing  to  offer  some  of  his  hem- 
lock to  the  gods,  335  ;  represented 
on  the  stage,  428  ;  on  idleness,  491 

Soldiers,  Skins  as  the  dress  of,  8  ;  The 
chlamys  of,  18  ;  of  Sparta,  454  —456 ; 
of  Athens,  456— 460;  hired,  458;  Pay- 
ment of,  459 

Solon,  Oath  for  ephebl  composed  by, 
117;  Symbolical  marria-e  custom 
ordained  by,  141 ;  Travels  of,  198  ; 
on  funeral  laments,  248  ;  on  the 
garments  of  a  corpse,  251 ;  on 
military  service,  456 ;  his  legislation 
against  the  slavery  of  foreigners,  521 

Song  in  praise  of  the  murderers  of 
Hipparchus,  215 

Songs.  Drinking,  215;  of  victory,  at 
Olympic  festivals,  363;  on  the 
stage,  416 

Sophists,  The,  127;  at  the  Feast  of 
Pitchers,  387 

Sophocles,  Figure  of,  in  the  Lateran, 
217 ;  Beard  of,  73  ;  his  account  of 
the  funeral  games  in  honour  of 
Patroclus,  ai7  ;  Tetralogies  of,  412 ; 
Chorus  and  dialogue  of,  413; 
Satyri-;  dramas  of,  415 ;  contest 
with  Aeschylus,  449 

Sparta,  Dress  of  male  population  of, 
12 ;  Wearing  of  shoes  forbidden  in, 
49  ;  Mode  of  wearing  the  hair  in, 
71 ;  Hardening  infants  in,  80,  82  ; 
System  of  education  in,  99 — 102 ; 
Clothing  and  discipline  of  boys  in, 
100;  Indifference  to  pain  in,  100; 
Study  of  music  In,  101,  113  ;  Gym- 
nastic exercises  in,  101,  132  ;  High 
reputation  of  women  of,  132 ; 
Domestic  relations  at,  146 ;  Daily 
life  at,  175—179  ;  Opinion  of  work 
in,  490 ;  Handicrafts  in,  501 

"  Spartiates,"  The,  454,  455 

Spear,  Throwing  the,  121,  124,  281,  282, 
'  353  ;  of  soldiers,  472 

Spinning,  130,  152—154 

Spring-boards,  268,  269 

Spring-weights,  268 

Spurs,  480 

Staiiii:7ii,Tue,  362,  365 

Stage  of  the  Greek  theatre,  404-411 

Statues,  Representations  of  daily  life 
in,  19 

Stelai,  Decoration  of,  258-262 

Stirrups,  480 

Ktoa  Poikile,  The,  127,  378 

Stockings,  Substitutes  for,  55 

Stoics,  The,  127 

Stones  used  in  war,  477,  478 

Strabo,  239 

Streets  of  Athens,  179,  180 

Stringed  instruments,  306—814 


INDEX. 


547 


Btrophion,  The, 

Btudniczka  on  the  shape  of  the  peplos, 
21 

Styx,  245 

Squares,  Public,  180 

Street  of  Tripods,  390 

Suburbs  of  Athens,  180 

Sucking-pigs  oftered  in  sacrifice,  330 

Sucklinjj  infants,  81 

Sun-dials,  185 

Sunshaies,  61-63,  152,  376 

Superintendents  of  schools'at  Athens, 
102 

Superstitions  customs  at  death  and 
bnri.-il,  243-264 

Swaddling  clothes.  80 

Swimming,  Practice  of,  126 

Swine  offered  in  sacrifice,  330,  860 ; 
Rearing  of,  497 

Swings,  95 

Sword,  The,  473-475  ;  the  "  Lacedae- 
monian," 475,  480 

Sword-dance,  217 

Sympathetic  cures,  243 

Symposium,  The,  204,  209  ;  Proceedings 
at,  209;  Games  and  riddles  at,  219— 
230  ;  Regulations  at,  213  ;  Music  at, 
214;  sometimes  became  M  orgy, 
216  ;  its  ending,  230 

Syracuse,  Theatre  of,  399 

Syrinx,  The,  320 

Syssitia,  177 

"  Table-merchants,"  618 

Tables,  202,  205,  209 

Tablets  for  writing,  108  109 

Tambourines,  320 

Tanagra,  228 

"  Taxiarchs,"  The,  457 

Temple-sweepers,  327 

Temples,  Medical,  239—248 

Temples,  Religious,  regarded  as  the 
dwellings  of  the  gods,  324 

T.-n  Thousand,  the.  Expedition  of,  458 

Terra-cottas,  Women's  dress  in,  43; 
Head  -  coverings  in,  61 ;  Playing 
games  in,  223,  226 

rhulamus,  The,  141 

"  Tliaumatnrgists,"  217 

Tli.-atre,  The,  Origin  of,  892;  Daylight 
performances  in,  394;  Auditorium, 
stage  and  orchestra  of,  396 ;  of 
Dionysus,  of  Syracuse,  and  of 
Segesta,  396 ;  Plan  and  structure 
of,  398;  Situation  and  seats  of, 
399  ;  Seats  of  honour  in,  400;  Gang- 
ways and  staircases  in,  401 ;  Ar- 
cades and  size  of,  402  ;  of  Ephesus, 
and  of  Megalopolis,  402  ;  The 
thymele  of  orchestra  in,  403  ;  En- 
trances to  orchestra  in,  404 ;  De- 
coration of  proscenium  in,  404 ; 
Stage  doors  of,  405 ;  Scenery  of, 
406,  407  ;  Various  uses  of  the 
orchestra  in,  407  ;  Revolving  pieces 
of  scenery  in,  408  ;  Machinery  of, 
409  ;  Gods  in,  410 ;  Plays  acted  in, 
411—421  ;  Actors  of,"  421-432  ; 
Masks  used  in,  425—132  ;  Costume* 


of  performers  In,  432—444  ;  Admis- 
sion of  the  public  to,  444—448; 
Prizes  of  actors  in,  449 

Theocritus,  Allusions  to  .  women's 
dress  by,  43;  Alcmene's  song  to 
her  children  in,  85  ;  Epithalamium 
of  Helen  in,  141  ;  his  allusion  to 
the  women  at  the  Festival  of 
Adonis,  152,  390 

Theosnis,  in  Attic  schools,  110 ;  Song 
by,  215 

Thermae,  The,  of  the  Roman  Empire, 
192 

Thesmophoria,  The,  151,  382,  383 

Thesmophoriatusae,The,ot  Aristophanes, 
170 

Thessaly,  and  the  origination  of  the 
chlamys,  17;  Luxury  in,  206;  Slin- 
gi-rs  of,  478  ;  Horse-rearing  in,  496 

"  Thetes,"  The,  456 

Tholia,  The,  61 

Tholos  buildings,  253 

Threshing,  493 

Throwing  the  javelin,  278,  279,  282; 
quoits,  121,  275,  277,  278  ;  the 
spear,  121,  124,  281,  282 

Thucydides,  his  allusion  to  male  dress, 
12  ;  allusion  to  dressing  the  hair,  68 

Thymele,  The,  403 

Time,  Measurement  of,  183 

Tolls,  201,  502 

Tombs,  254;  Inscriptions  and  designs 
on,  258—262 

Torch-race,  The,  274,  275,  376 

Torches,  Bridal,  139,  140 

Tortoise,  The,  as  a  symbol  of  domestic 
life,  151 ;  Lyre  of  Hermes  con- 
structed out  of  a,  307 

Torture  of  slaves,  527 

Torturers,  525 

Towns,  Life  in,  177 

"  Towns,  Game  of,"  223 

Toys,  89—93 

Trades  (See  Handicrafts,  .fee.) 

Tradesmen,  Contempt  for,  508,  509 
Dishonesty  of,  510 

Tragedies,  411—414,  430 

TraineuB  of  youth  in  Sparta,  99 

Travelling,  197—201 

Tribes,  at  Athens,  143 ;  of  Greece  to 
heroic  period,  451  ;  in  later  cen- 
turies, 453,  454 

Trigonon,  The,  313 

Trousers,  20 

Trumpets,  320 

Tumulus,  253 

Tunics,  49 

Tyndareus,  The  chiton  of,  11 

Umpires  at  Olympic  g  imes,  358,  359 
Urns,  255 
Usury,  617 

Vase  painter,  Workshop  of  a,  506 
Vase  paintings,  The  chiton  in,  4 ;  Re- 
presentations of  daily  life  in,  19; 
Female  dress  in,  22, 28,  30  ;  Drapery 
in,  33,  84  ;  Coloured  patterns  in, 
45 ;  Ephebi  racing  on  horseback  in, 


548 


INDEX. 


125;    Bridal    procession    }n,   144; 

Representations  of  women  in,  153 — 

159,  164,  167 ;  Drinking  scenes  in. 

230 ;  Charioteers  in,  451 
Vaults  for  the  dead,  253,  254 
Vegetables,  207,  208 
Vines,  494 
Visiting,  194 
Vitruvius,  his   description   of  a  gym 

nasium,  120 

Wail,  Funeral,  248 

Walking-sticks,  63,  64 

War,  Authorities  on  the  subject  of,  450 ; 
Parttaken  bynobles  in,451;  Chariot- 
eers in,  451,  452  ;  Arms  used  in, 
452,  4(30-480  ;  Cavalry  in,  452,  479 ; 
Infantry  in,  452;  The  closed  phalanx 
in,  452;  Captives  taken  in,  452; 
Modes  in  heroic  age  of,  452  ;  regarded 
as  a  festival,  455  ;  Sacrifice  before 
entering  upon,  456  ;  Sieges,  480,  481 

Washing  clothes,  156,  157  ;  at  wells,  159 

Water,  Holy,  137  ;  sprinkled  after  death, 
244,  255  ;  in  the  temples,  329  ;  its 
use  at  the  time  of  sacrifice,  337 

Water  clocks,  185—187 

Weaning,  85 

Weaving,  130,  152 

Wedding  banquets,  138  (See,  also,  Mar- 
riage) 

Weights  and  measures,  False,  510 

Wind  instruments,  314—320 

Wine,  forbidden  to  women,  170 ;  D/hik- 
ing,  178,  202,  209 ;  mixed  with  water, 
210  ;  Varieties  of,  210  ;  used  in  the 
game  of  cottabus,  221 ;  offered  in 
sacrifice  to  gods,  335 ;  at  the  Anthes- 
terian  festival,  385 

Witchcraft,  Protection  from,  331 

Witches,  88 

Wives,  their  admission  among  the  clans- 
men, 142  ;  their  honourable  position 
at  Sparta,  146;  their  subordinate 
position  among  the  Athenians,  147  ; 
Infidelity  of,  148  ;  of  poorer  citizens, 
150  ;  Advice  for,  166,  167 

Women,  Dress  of,  20 — 49  ;  Head-cover- 
ings of,  60 -€3  ;  Head-dress  of,  74— 
77;  suckling  their  children,  81; 
their  part  in  the  Amphkiromia,  83, 
84 ;  purification  after  childbirth,  84 ; 
amusing  their  children,  88 ;  their 
high  reputation  in  Sparta,  132;  their 
position  in  relation  to  men  and  in 
the  household,  145  ;  their  important 
position  in  heroic  times,  145  ;  their 
household  duties,  146  ;  as  wives,  146 
—149 ;  their  apartments,  150  ;  fetch- 
ing water  from  the  wells,  151  ;  at- 
tended by  slaves,  151,  182;  their 
seclusion,  151 ;  their  few  public  ap- 
pearances, 151,  152  ;  their  weaving 
and  spinning,  152 — 154  ;  Vase  paint- 
ing representations  of,  155,  164,  167 ; 


•washing  clothes,  156,  157 ;  «t  their 
toilet,  157, 159  ;  Baths  for,  169,  102 ; 
anointing  tr.e  body,  162  ;  Mai.!?  of, 
162  ;  rougeing,  dyeing  the  hair,  &.C., 
165, 166  ;  Inferiority  of  the  Athenian 
to  the  Spartan,  170  ;  addicted  to  in- 
temperance, 170  ;  dining,  178,  203  ; 
sitting  at  windows,  182  ;  at  funeralt, 
245,  246,  251 ;  at  a  sacrificial  cm  - 
mony,  338 ;  forbidden  to  witness  tlw 
Olympic  games,  366;  at  Eleusinhm 
festivals,  380;  at  the  festival  of 
Demeter,  382  ;  at  night  celebrations 
of  Dionysus,  390  ;  at  the  theatre, 
447;  as  slaves,  521,  523 

Woollen  clothing,  11,  47,  497 

Work,  how  regarded  by  Doric  and  other 
races,  490  ;  Hesiod's  opinion  of,  490 ; 
encouraged  by  the  tyrants,  490; 
Opinion  of  Socrates  of,  491 ;  Depre- 
ciation of,  499,  500 

Workmen,  Dress  of,  12, 19, 188  ;  travel- 
ling, 198;  Citizens' contempt  for.  498; 
Hired,  506  ;  Wages  of,  508 

Workshops,  190,  192,  502—506 

Wreaths,  given  to  guests  at  a  sympo- 
sium, 209  ;  on  the  dead,  245  ;  on 
tombs,  262;  of  priests,  327;  at 
Olympic  games,  361,  362 

Wrestling,  Technical  expressions  of, 
284 ;  Preparations  for,  284  ;  The 
process  of  cleansing  after,  285  ;  Two 
principal  methods  of,  285;  repre- 
sented in  the  Florentine  marMe 
group,  286  ;  Tricks  or  feints  in,  288 ; 
Superintendents  of.  288,  289 ;  its 
thorough  development  into  an  art, 
290  ;  at  Olympia.  353 

Wrestling  school,  Tin;,  115  ;  its  manage- 
ment, 116;  Method  and  object  of 
instruction  in,  116,  2S2  ;  of  Olyni]>ia, 
121  ;  of  Ephesus  and  Alexandria 
Troas,  121 

Xenophon's  Oikonomikos,  Allusion  to, 
1:50,  166  ;  description  of  symposia, 
214,  217,  220 

Youths,  Dress  of,  18  ;  Hair  of,  69 ; 
Beards  of,  74  (See,  also,  Boys) 

Zeus,  as  represented  in  works  of  art, 
19 ;    Beard  of,  73 ;  witness  to  the 
oath  taken  by  ephebi,  118;  invoked 
at  weddings,  137;  protector  of  stran- 
gers, 199  ;  statue  by  Pheidias,  328  ; 
Oracle  of.  344  ;  Sacrifice  at  Olympic 
festival  to,  359  ;  Appeal  from  olive- 
growers  to,  495 
Zeus  Ammon,  Oracle  of,  345 
Zeus  tlerkeios,  Altar  to,  181,  358 
Zeus  Moiragetes,  Prayer  to,  360 
Zeus-Nemeios,  Sanctuary  of,  371 
Zeus  Soter,  Libations  to,  212 
Zeus  Trophonius.  Oracle  of,  345 


UBRARYFACIUTY 


A    000035758    2 


